Legislation update

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has provided the latest legislation update for your attention. Please find the details below.

Community Care Inform now contains a guide to the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010. This is the first significant Measure of the National Assembly for Wales (which in terms of legal effect has the same status as an Act of Parliament) dealing solely with children. It is likely to mark the start of a process of increasing divergence in the law relating to children as between England and Wales. A wide-ranging piece of legislation, the Measure (most of which is not yet in force) does the following things:

(i) establishes Welsh arrangements for tackling child poverty, which are in addition to the provision made by the UK Child Poverty Act 2010;

(ii) creates a duty on Welsh local authorities to secure sufficient play opportunities in their areas;

(iii) contains a new regulatory system for child minding and day care in Wales (with the old system contained in Part 10A of the Children Act 1989 being repealed);

(iv) creates integrated family support teams, with social work and health representation, as a new model of social work provision for especially vulnerable families;

(v) requires each local authority in Wales to appoint a family social work standards officer, to champion evidence-based social work practice.