This is a short guide to the act. For a more in-depth guide on the act's key elements, see our Management Guide
Headline changes include:
LSCBs (Local Safeguarding Children Boards) and Serious Case Reviews will be replaced with a national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel looking at cases which are deemed complex or of national importance, while local cases will be dealt with by Local child safeguarding practice reviews and Child Death Review Panels (CDRPs). Local child safeguarding practice reviews will look at ‘serious child safeguarding cases which raise issues of importance in relation to the area’, while CDRPs are tasked specifically with reviewing cases where a child died.
Strengthened multiagency working in safeguarding cases by mandating information sharing.
Sex and/or relationships education for all children in all schools, including academies. Primary school-aged children must get relationships education, while at secondary schools 'sex and relationships' education is designed to reflect a need to protect children from issues such as cyberbullying and sexting.
New powers for the education secretary to set ‘improvement standards’ for social workers, and introduce assessments for social work practitioners.
What was dropped
A controversial clause in the bill would have allowed children’s services departments to remove or amend the requirement for them to comply with safeguarding laws from the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. Critics, including a Together for Children campaign (comprising 53 separate organisations, working together to oppose the exemption clauses) said it would unpick decades of built-up protection. The entire the chapter relating to this was dropped.
The Government also u-turned on controversial plans for the new regulator for social workers to be Government-controlled. The act now allows for the creation of a new non-departmental public body, Social Work England, to take over from the Health and Care Professions Council as the profession’s regulator.
Other changes
The act is designed to build on steps already taken to enable children in care to stay with their former foster families after they turn 18, while also reforming the adoption system. It contains a new set of principles clarifying how local authorities can promote and defend the interests of all looked-after children and care leavers. It also has new requirement for local authorities to consult on and publish a local offer setting out the support available for care leavers in that area, and to ensure that all care leavers have access to a personal adviser up to age 25.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/contents/enacted
This is a short guide to the act. For a more in-depth guide on the act's key elements, see our Management Guide
