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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

As we discussed in earlier debates on the amendment there are good reasons why most of Section 8 of the 1989 Act does not apply to children in the care of the local authority under a care order. For such children, parental responsibility has been conferred on the local authority through the making of the care order. The local authority therefore has the ongoing statutory responsibility to plan for that child’s care, including in making arrangements for contact and for placement of a child. The Children Act 1989 is predicated on the basis that the courts are to decide on the question of whether the grounds for making a care order are met. If so, beyond the making of the order, it is for the local authority rather than the courts to exercise responsibility for the supervision of the care order. The role of the independent reviewing officer is important here in monitoring the local authority’s implementation of the care plan. However, it is not simply the independent reviewing officer who has a role in this regard, though we are strengthening the IRO in the provision set out in the Bill. There are also duties to allow reasonable contact with parents and others, and a requirement to take account of the child’s wishes and feelings—and those of his parents—in taking decisions about placements. Robust protection is in place to deal with the issues raised by the noble Baroness. However, there could be serious issues of local authorities being frustrated in their exercise of statutory parental responsibility if parents, children in care or others were able to apply for prohibited steps or specific issue orders. The safeguards that we are currently building to guard against inappropriate placement moves are more appropriate than allowing applications for these types of orders to be made with respect to children in care.