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the hearing should be adjouned and the LIP made to pay the wasted costs.

Oh, right, Paul Howard. How stupid of me to think that the 'justice' system is for the benefit of citizens and not the convenience of practitioners.
But then, my cynicism about our incomparable, millennial system that I learnt about at school nearly 60 years ago has declined ever since, and not for sour grapes reasons. It is precisely the plight of children that is most egregious and entirely the fault of our senior judiciary. I couldn't believe it when I discovered that children, almost always without funds, were not automatically entitled - by judicial decision at common law, before there was legal aid, for which they are still dependent on an adult - to representation. Judicial acceptance of this is contemptuous. How can they assert/accept that a convicted foreign criminal has a right to representation (ECHR?) but not a child?
It is, of course, utterly depressing that Liberty and Justice and even those voluntary, let alone official, organisations set up to represent or help children seem utterly unconcerned about it. Once again, the defenders of animals are readier and louder in their protests than are those of children.