A statutory instrument published this afternoon makes unprecedented changes to regulations (secondary legislation) relating to the care and protection of vulnerable children and young people. The changes to 10 sets of regulations come into force tomorrow (24 April 2020), and are due to expire on 25 September 2020 – though this expiry date can be … Read more
The Department for Education is undertaking a consultation on unregulated provision for children in care and care leavers. The original deadline was 8 April 2020. Since we are in the middle of a global pandemic, 91 organisations and individuals wrote to Children’s Minister Vicky Ford MP asking her to postpone the consultation. The consultation was … Read more
Focusing on the added vulnerability created by the COVID-19 pandemic for some groups of children and young people, we look at how the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010 have been recently used to successfully challenge national level guidance. We also share a recent Court of Appeal judgment which found that children in foster … Read more
Last week, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) announced it was “suspending complaints enquiries of councils and care providers’ in light of the Coronavirus outbreak”. The Ombudsman, Michael King, stated that “we still expect local authorities and care providers to respond appropriately to any complaints they receive during this time”. However, he has … Read more