Legislation update
Child Protection
A little-known corner of child protection law has been reformed. It will be of particular interest to councils with military bases in their areas who are working with families who are then stationed abroad. UK child protection legislation does not apply where a service family is stationed outside the UK. Instead, there is a separate legal mechanism for securing the welfare of children of such service families which is found in the Armed Forces (Protection of Children of Service Families) Regulations 2009 which can be accessed here (the regulations come into force on 31 October 2009). A council may well be asked to provide evidence in proceedings under the 2009 Regulations, say where child protection concerns escalated following a family being stationed abroad. In order to understand the legal context in which the evidence will be used, it would be useful for child protection teams to have access to a copy of the regulations.
Looked After Children
A key aim of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008 is to improve educational outcomes for looked after children. Section 20 of the Act allows regulations to ensure that designated teachers for looked after children have certain qualifications and experience. Regulations have now been made under section 20 for England and will come into force on 1 September 2009. They are called the Designated Teacher (Looked After Pupils etc)(England) Regulations 2009 and require mimimum levels of experience in order for a person to be the designated teacher for looked after children. The full regulations can be accessed from s.20 of the Inform guide to the Children and Young Persons Act 2008: click here.
Disabled Children
In November 2009, a new set of regulations will come into force governing the making of direct payments under the Children Act 1989, for example where the parent of a disabled child decides to take a cash sum to purchase care services on the open market as an alternative to the direct provision of services by, or on behalf of, a local authority. The new regulations can be accessed from the Inform guide to s.17A of the Children Act 1989: click here.
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
A number of amendments have been made to the Community Care Inform guide to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, to reflect the following developments:
(i) the Government's decision that only the barring elements of the 2006 Act will come into force in October 2009 (so that, from that date, a person on the list of persons barred from working with children will be prohibited from carrying out that close-contact activity with children that falls within the 2006 Act's definition of "regulated activity"). This means that the 'monitoring'/ ISA-registration elements of the 2006 Act will not start to become mandatory until November 2010. In other words, no one will be required by law to become ISA-registered until November 2010 and, even then, monitoring will be phased in gradually;
(ii) a recent order has omitted certain types of activity from the 2006 Act's definition of "regulated activity" (the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order 2009). As well as ancillary first aid, the Order excludes certain foster carers from the definition of "regulated activity" so that, in some cases, a 'barred' person will still be able to foster, for example where the local authority responsible for a child is satisfied that the child's welfare requires him/her to be fostered by a 'barred' relative. For further details, see Schedule 4 of the Inform guide to the 2006 Act: click here;
(iii) recent regulations have extend the ambit of "regulated activity" so that it catches certain people providing transport for children. The regulations are the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2009. For further details, see Schedule 4 of the Inform guide to the 2006 Act: available here;
(iv) an order has been made so that a person contained on the Northern Ireland barred lists will also be barred in England and Wales. For more details, see section 3 of the Inform guide to the 2006 Act: click here.
Family Proceedings
Appeals
S.94 of the Children Act 1989 has been amended so that the general rule is now that appeals against decisions of the Magistrates' Court under the Children Act 1989 go to the county court, rather than the High Court. The reason for this, according to the Government, is to "make more efficient use of available judicial resources by rerouting appeals to a lower court so as to reduce pressure on the High Court bench". For the amended description of s.94 of the Children Act 1989 in the Inform guide to that Act click here. The Allocation and Transfer of Proceedings Order 2008 has also been amended in the light of the alteration to s.94. For the 2008 Order, as amended, click here (link to be posted asap).
Media attendance and disclosure of information
The Community Care Inform versions of the Family Proceedings Rules (which apply in the High Court and county court and are available here and the Family Proceedings Courts (Children Act 1989) Rules (which apply in the Magistrates' Court and are available here have been amended to take account of the following developments:
(i) the high-profile changes to the rules about press attendance at hearings in family proceedings. These involve the insertion of a new Rule 10.28 into the Family Proceedings Rules and a new Rule 16A into the Magistrates' Courts rules. The new rules provide rights for for "duly accredited" members of the press to attend proceedings. They are supplemented by two practice directions and two sets of guidance. The directions and guidance are available at http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgment_guidance/practice_directions/family-media.htm#pfd280409. It should be noted that that these changes do not apply to adoption proceedings because they are governed by separate rules, the Family Procedure (Adoption) Rules 2005 which have not been amended. The difficulties posed where care and placement order proceedings are running concurrently are dealt with by one of the sets of guidance just referred to;
(ii) the second development is a complete re-ordering of the rules about the disclosure of information relating to family proceedings. The Rules are now contained in Part XI of the Family Proceedings Rules and Part IIC of the Magistrates' Court rules.
Fees
The Community Care Inform version of the Family Proceedings (Fees) Order 2008 has been amended to take account of recent fee increases. The Order, as amended, is available here.
Childcare Act 2006
A number of changes have recently been made to the operation of the Childcare Act 2006 system for regulating childcare.
Fees
Registration fees for childcare provision registered with OFSTED will rise in September 2009, as part of what the Government describes as "a planned process of rises to increase the proportion of fee revenue from the Early Years Register towards the cost to Ofsted of providing its services". The revised fees are contained in the Inform version of the Childcare (Fees) Regulations 2008 (as amended) which can be accessed from s.53 of the guide to the Childcare Act 2006: click here.
The General Childcare Register
OFSTED is required by the Childcare Act 2006 to maintain two childcare registers, an Early Years Register and a General Childcare Register. The General Childcare Register has two parts. Part A is for childcare providers looking after children aged between (approximately) five and eight: these providers must be registered. Part B is for other providers who have decided voluntarily to register with OFSTED such as those looking after children aged over eight.
Many aspects of 'General Childcare' are governed by regulations. The Inform version of the relevant regulations - the Childcare (General Childcare Register) Regulations 2008 - has been amended to take account of recent changes. For the amended regulations, go to s.54 of the Inform guide to the Childcare Act 2006: click here. Briefly, the main changes are:
(i) alignment of complaints procedures for general childcare providers with those for early years providers (so 28 days within which to respond to a complaint and complaints records must be kept for 3 years),
(ii) OFSTED will now be able to waive the requirement for a childminder (registered in the general childcare register) to be on the premises at all times which would allow children to be left in the care of, for example, a CRB-checked assistant,
(iii) relaxation of the CRB checking requirements for home-child carers registered in Part B of the General Childcare Register.
Disqualification
Disqualification regulations set out a list of persons who are automatically disqualified from being registered as a childcare provider with OFSTED. A new set of disqualification regulations has been made and will come into force in September 2009. They are called the Childcare Disqualification Regulations 2009 and are available from s.75 of the Community Care Inform guide to the Childcare Act 2006: click here. The main change from the previous regulations is that a person who, in the past, has been refused registered or had registration cancelled because of non-payment of registration fees is not now automatically disqualified from registration in the future.
Collection of information about young children
Childcare providers for "young children" (meaning a child from birth to the end of the academic year in which a child turns 5) can be required to provide information to local authorities. This process (the 'Early Years Census') is governed by regulations made under s.99 of the Childcare Act 2006. New regulations have been made to replace the previous ones. The new regulations, called the Childcare (Provision of Information about Young Children) (England) Regulations 2009, draw a distinction between funded and non-funded early years provision: a greater amount of information about the former may be collected than about the latter. The new regulations can be accessed from s.99 of the Community Care Inform guide to the Childcare Act 2006: click .
