The key argument about private fostering - whether to regulate or not regulate - will not be settled by the Government's publication of the statutory instruments on arrangements for private fostering of children.
People involved in private fostering arrangements must now inform the local authority, who must appoint a designated officer, who must in turn visit the foster care facility, interview the child and, if possible, ascertain the child's views.
The local authority must also make professionals with responsibility for children, from health visitors to teachers, aware of private fostering.
But the problems arise among those children who will be excluded from this discipline - those not known to the local authority, whose movements are not tracked by the health and education systems.
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