Legislation update september 2011

All change for children's services law in England

It was all change for the provision of children's services in England on 1 April 2011. That date marked the implementation of most of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008. The Inform legislation guides have now been fully revised to take account of those wide-ranging changes to the legislation about local authority duties towards looked after children, other vulnerable children and care leavers, which came into force in April 2011. The key points to note are as follows:

 

(i) cash assistance for families - section 17 of the Children Act 1989 has been amended to reflect the removal of the restrictions on providing a children's service in the form of cash,

 

(ii) new placement obligations - three new sections of the Children Act 1989, sections 22A to 22C, now provide for local authority placement responsibilites towards looked after children. The most important section is section 22C which requires a different placement choice process than previously, placing greater emphasis on parental placements. Section 22C is supplemented by the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010. These replace a range of old regulations dating back to 1991 so that a single set of regulations now deals with care plans for looked after children, placement plans, special placement rules for different types of placement such as emergency placements with unapproved foster carers, reviews, visits by social workers to looked after children, the meaning of independent visitors, and pathway plans and personal advisers for eligible children,

 

(iii) use of unregulated accommodation - a new section 22D of the Children Act 1989 places new restrictions on placing looked after children in unregulated accommodation, such as supported lodgings,

 

(iv) managing placement availability - a new section 22G of the Children Act 1989 imposes new duties on local authorities to ensure they have access to a sufficient range of local placements,

 

(v) visits to looked after children - a new section 22ZA of the Children Act 1989 imposes new duties on local authorities/their social workers to visit looked after children. The duty is supplemented by regulations, which set out matters such as frequency of visits (the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010). Also, the duty has been extended by regulations so that it also applies to certain children who ceased to be looked after upon being detained (the Visits to Former Looked After Children in Detention (England) Regulations 2010),

 

(vi) independent visitors - a new section 22ZB reforms the law on the appointment of independent visitors for looked after children and is likely to lead to more independent visitors having to be appointed,

 

(vii) leaving care regulations - the leaving care regulations have been reformed. Regulations about leaving care services for eligible children (briefly, these are older looked after children who have not yet left care) are found in the general Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010. But relevant children (briefly, early care leavers), former care leavers (young adults who have left care) and the new category of care leaver (see below) are provided for in the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010,

 

(viii) extension of leaving care duties - an entirely new category of person entitled to leaving care services has been created. This is provided for in new section 23CA of the Children Act 1989. Briefly, it is for the benefit of care leavers who return to education or training between the ages of 21 and 25,

 

(ix) independent reviewing officers - the core functions of independent reviewing officers are now enshrined on the face of the Children Act 1989, in new sections 25A and 25B. The functions of IROs are also extended so that they have a wider role than simply being involved in looked after children's reviews,

 

(x) voluntary organisations - a new set of regulations deal with the placement of childen by voluntary organisations. These are available from section 59 of the Children Act 1989,

 

(xi) children in alternatve forms of long-term care - local authorities' duties in relation to children in alternative forms of long-term residential care, such as in hospital, have been extended. These are explained in the revised guides to sections 85 to 86A of the Children Act 1989. They are supplemented by regulations, the Visits to Children in Long-Term Residential Care Regulations 2011. Unusually in this era of devolution, these Regulations apply to both England and Wales. The new visiting duties should be read in conjunction with new paragraph 8A of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989 which contains new duties on local authorities to promote contact between children in long-term residential care and their families,

 

(xii) respite care for disabled children - local authorities have new duties to provide respite breaks for the carers of disabled children. These are explained in the note to paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989. The new duties are supplemented by regulations, the Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011,

 

(xiii) Care Planning Regulations - the CC Inform version of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 has been updated. Despite only being in force since 1 April 2011, those regulations have already been amended (to reflect the new Fostering Services Regulations). The CC Inform version of the Care Planning etc Regulations incorporates those amendments,

 

(xiv) Adoption Agencies Regulations - the CC Inform version of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 has been updated to reflect recent amendments. The amendments principally concern the establishment of adoption panels,

 

(xv) Children's Homes - the CC Inform version of the Children's Homes Regulations 2001 has been updated. This is to reflect a raft of amendments made to the Regulations, covering a diverse range of matters including, to name but a few, care planning through to restraint and keeping of records of menus. Further analysis of the changes to the Regulations are contained in a specially commissioned CC Inform guide [pls link to the Children's Homes guide that I sent in recently]

 

What about Wales?

Currently, it is particularly difficult to work out the law about the provision of children's services in Wales. This is because most of the April 2011 changes to the Children Act 1989 described above have not been brought into force in Wales although they are expressed as applying to Wales. Accordingly, we currently have 'new law' applying in England but 'old law' in Wales. The Inform guides have been amended to guide Welsh subscribers through the labyrinthe. Key points are:

 

(i) placement choice - section 23 of the Children Act 1989, which contains the placement choice obligations that were contained in the original version of the Children Act 1989, now only applies in Wales. The CC Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 has been amended to reflect that,

 

(ii) visits to looked after children - the new visiting duties in section 22ZA of the Children Act 1989 are already operational in Wales. That section is one of the few changes to the Children Act 1989 that came into force in Wales at the same time as in England. Also. like in England, the duty has been extended by regulations to include visits to some looked after children who ceased to be looked after upon being detained (the Visits to Former Looked After Children in Detention (Wales) Regulations 2011),

 

(iii) children in alternative long-term care - the extended duties to visit children in alternative forms of long-term residential care are already operation in Wales. These are explained in the revised guides to sections 85 to 86A of the Children Act 1989. They are supplemented by regulations, the Visits to Children in Long-Term Residential Care Regulations 2011. Unusually in this era of devolution, these Regulations apply to both England and Wales. The new visiting duties should be read in conjunction with new paragraph 8A of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989 which contains new duties on local authorities to promote contact between children in long-term residential care and their families."