Legislation update january 2011

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has updated the legislation on the site. Please see below for a guide to what has changed with links straight through to the relevant part of the statute.

Children & Young Persons Act 2008: reform of the Children Act 1989

The most significant reforms to the law about looked-after children since the Children Act 1989 was first enacted, and other major leaving care reforms, are fast approaching their implementation date in England of 1 April 2011. Inform's legislation guides have been amended to reflect the changes.

 

The changes are contained in provisions of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008 (which are coming into force in England on 1 April 2011). As the 2008 Act operates by amending the Children Act 1989, we have altered the Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 to show the changes in-situ. The highlights are as follows:

 

- section 17 of the Children Act guide is amended to reflect the impending removal of the restriction on making c+ash payments as a form of service for children in need or their families,

 

- section 23 of the Children Act guide is amended as a result of new rules about choosing placements for looked-after children. That section also includes a link to the new Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 (which come into force on 1 April 2011),

 

- a new section 23ZA is added to the Children Act guide. This new section obliges councils to undertake a programme of visits to looked after children. The guide also includes a link to regulations which extend the duty so that it also applies to certain children who ceased to be looked after when they were detained,

 

- a new section 23ZB is added to the Children Act guide. This is a new section which imposes extensive new obligations on councils to appoint independent visitors for looked after children,

 

- section 23A of the Children Act is amended so that it contains a link to the new Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010 (which come into force on 1 April 2011),

 

- a new section 23CA is added to the Children Act guide. This new section creates a new category of care leaver eligible for leaving care services. It is designed to benefit care leavers who return to education or training after attaining the age of 21,

 

- new sections 25A and 25B  are added to the Children Act guide. These new sections enhance the role of Independent Reviewing Officers so that they will monitor a council's overall performance in relation to a looked after child, rather than just focus on statutory reviews,

 

- sections 85 and 86 of the Children Act 1989 are amended to alter the notification requirements for children in alternative forms of long-term care such as hospitals. Also a new section 86A imposes new visiting obligations on local authorities in relation to such children. These changes are due to occur in Wales as well as England,

 

- a new duty to arrange respite care for disabled children is created. It is contained in amendments made to paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act.

 

Children & Young Persons Act 2008: Independent social work practices

 An order has been made permitting a further 10 English local authorities to establish independent social work practices under Part 1 of the 2008 Act. For further details, including about the legal status of such practices, see section 1 of the Inform guide to the 2008 Act.

 

Care Standards

A new section 30A is added to the Inform guide to the Care Standards Act 2000. This new section, which comes into force on 1 April 2011 in England, requires councils to be notified if OFSTED takes enforcement action in relation to children's social care, such as children's homes, registered under the 2000 Act.

 

Wales: Children & Young Persons Act 2008

The reforms to looked-after children and leaving care services referred to above are contained in legislation which extends across England and Wales. At the date of this update, however, the Welsh Ministers had not made any order bringing the legislation into force in Wales. But there are plenty of other legislative developments happening in Wales at the moment, as explained below.

 

Wales: Child-minding and day care

Part 2 of the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010 is to come into force on 1 April 2011. This establishes a new regime for the registration of child-minding and children's day care in Wales. The CC Inform guide to the 2010 Measure has been amended accordingly and links added to the range of newly-made regulations which supplement the registration scheme. For further details, see section 19 of the CC Inform guide to the 2010 Measure.

 

At the same time, the existing legislation contained in Part XA of the Children Act 1989 will be repealed. This is explained at section 79A of the CC Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 [link please], which also contains links to the transitional legislation which transfers currently registered providers from the old to the new registration system.

 

Wales: child poverty

Local authorities, and others such as NHS bodies, in Wales are now required to have produced their child poverty strategies. This is as a result of provisions of the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010 coming into force in January 2011. For further details, see section 2 of the guide to the 2010 Measure and section 26 of the guide to the Children Act 2004 (this describes different ways in which the duty to produce a child poverty strategy may be discharged).