Ucas, the university admissions service, has announced that following calls from parents, it will be allowing them to take control and act as their children's representatives in the application process. Up until now the admissions service had to deal directly with young people, even if it was the parents who were really making all the decisions.
As a result, mum or dad are now in charge of one in 10 of this year's half-a-million applications. Parents can receive regular emails from Ucas updating them on the progress of their application and are even allowed to negotiate places and make decisions on behalf of their children.
It is difficult to know whether this is a good thing or not.
We all want to see as much parental involvement, encouragement and support as possible. And choosing what to study and where is one of the biggest decisions many 17- or 18-year-olds will ever make - even if they don't always appreciate it at the time.
But you won't get any extra Ucas points for working out what this latest change to the rules will do to the gap between young people with parents who take a proactive role in their life choices and those with parents who don't.
The Ucas decision highlights the challenge faced by those of us working with young people who don't have anyone to work the system for them.
With increasing numbers of parents taking greater control over their children's life choices, just how pushy should we be when it comes to those young people for whom we have some responsibility?
The approach to supporting vulnerable young people has improved hugely over the past few years. We now have a much better focus on early intervention and multi-agency support, along with a growing understanding of how important it is to work with the rest of the family.
But all this still isn't enough. What is needed now is someone to bring it all together.
Most of us are yet to really get to grips with the notion of a lead professional, let alone actually agreeing to take on the role. But becoming a lead professional isn't a new or different job. It's a way of working that acknowledges that, however well planned, most of the time things don't just happen by themselves.
The lead professional is a single point of contact, someone who co-ordinates the actions being undertaken by a number of agencies and makes sure that the voice of the young person and their family is heard.
Without lead professionals there is a real risk of duplication, inconsistency and a loss of momentum.
We might not like to admit it but, in a pushy world, our most vulnerable young people need pushier professionals. Otherwise they just don't stand a chance.
Michael Bracey is a local authority youth support services manager. Email michael.bracey@haymarket.com.
