APPENDIX 5: CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS
BILL [HL] — GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT
Supplementary memorandum by the Department for
Children, Schools and Families
1. As acknowledged by the Committee in its report
the Department has indicated in a previous supplementary memorandum
that it was reviewing clause 13 of the Children and Young Persons
Bill, and in particular the ambit of the power in the new Section
23ZA (1) (b).
2. A Government amendment has been tabled which
requires local authorities to ensure that children who were looked
after by them but who have ceased to be looked after as a result
of prescribed circumstances are visited. This would significantly
reduce the ambit of the delegated power in clause 13. The power
to prescribe the circumstances as a result of which a child ceases
to be looked after and must then be visited will be exercisable
by negative resolution, the parliamentary procedure adopted for
this clause for the reasons set out in our memorandum of 14 November
which the Department continues to believe is appropriate for this
case.
3. It is intended that local authorities will
be required by regulations to ensure that children who were voluntarily
accommodated under section 20 are visited when they lose their
looked after status because they cease to be so accommodated when
detained in secure training centres, young offender institutions
or prisons. The power will also enable us to extend the visiting
requirement to other comparable groups of vulnerable formerly
looked after children, who are living away from home in circumstances
in which it would be right to expect the local authority to take
a continuing interest in their welfare and their needs for services
might otherwise not come to the attention of the authorities.
4. This will enable us to deliver our policy
of placing the local authority under a duty to ensure a representative
of theirs visits children who immediately before entering custody
were accommodated by them under section 20 of the Children Act
1989.
Department for Children, Schools and Families
December 2007
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