Article 39 has today (4 July) challenged the Department for Education’s (DfE) refusal to release the names of members of the expert group it has set up to advise government on the development of new standards for the care of children living in foster care and residential settings such as children’s homes and supported accommodation. Officials have also refused to disclose minutes/notes of group meetings to date.
We made a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 request on 29 May, and received the DfE’s response last month. Although it refused to disclose the majority of information requested, the DfE did provide Article 39 with the group’s terms of reference which indicate members are helping to “develop new Standards of Care and review existing legislation”, and ministers will be briefed on their advice. The DfE also provided the name of the senior civil servant who is a member of the group.
Carolyne Willow, Article 39’s Director, said:
“There is huge public interest in transparency over who has been selected for this expert group, and its discussions to date. Legislation and government guidance set the requirements and expectations for how children in care are to be cared for and protected, both now and into the future. It is incredibly important that policy-making in this area is open and inclusive. We are seeking assurances that the interests of children are properly represented on this expert group, and that it includes individuals who have good knowledge and understanding of the current statutory scheme and children’s views and experiences of the protections in place today, and what needs to change.
“Deregulation has been a constant within government policy for many years – from the Red Tape Challenge of 2011 through to the exemption clauses of 2016 which, if passed, would have allowed local authorities to opt out of any number of their children’s social care duties for up to six years, through to the Covid-19 regulations in 2020 which overnight removed and diluted 65 safeguards for children in care.
“We successfully legally challenged the selective, secret consultation process that led to the Covid-19 regulations, with the Court of Appeal finding that the then Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, had acted unlawfully in not involving the Children’s Commissioner and other children’s rights groups in that policy development. The MacAlister care review’s final report, from which the work of this expert group is said to originate, continued the narrative of there being too many ‘rules’ within the children’s care system, so we are naturally anxious to learn which experts have been selected, and to find out what they have been discussing to date.”
The terms of reference of the ‘Looked after children standards and regulations expert group’, obtained through Article 39’s FOI request, can be viewed here.
Our request for an internal review challenges the DfE’s claim that disclosure of the requested information would have a “corrosive effect on the conduct of good government”, citing relevant case law in our successful FOI tribunal appeal last year where the DfE was made to release a safeguarding report examining 89 incidents where children in care had died or suffered serious harm.
The DfE is relying on the section 35(1)(a) exemption in the FOI Act 2000.