Sorry for the long copy and paste job but this really does seem like exploiting the current situation to get changes made that will make life for vulnerable young people a lot less safe. I'll be interested to see how many of these 'temporary' changes are lifted on Sept 25th.
Concerns raised over 'temporary' change to legal protections for vulnerable children.
On Friday 24th April the ‘Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020’ came into force, and are not due to expire until 25th September. These regulations make significant temporary changes to the protections given in law to some of the most vulnerable children in the country – those living in care. The changes are controversial, not least because some of them were part of a package which the government tried to implement in 2016.
Anne Longfield the Children's Commissioner, and charities have raised concerns about the legal changes, saying that vulnerable young people will be left worse off. One protection that has changed means that social workers don't even need to visit – or even telephone – a child in care every six weeks, reducing it to "as soon as is reasonably practicable".
The Children's Commissioner said that changes included:
review plans for children in care to set timescales have been relaxed
Children’s Homes can now enforce the deprivation of liberty of children if they are showing symptoms of Coronavirus
independent panels which approve foster carers and adoption placements have
become optional
Independent visits to Children’s Homes no longer have to occur monthly
Decisions to place children into care outside their local area with connected foster carers do not need to be approved by a nominated officer
In the Guardian, Carolyne Willow, the director of Article 39, a charity that campaigns for the rights of children in institutional settings, said, '[The government] has also conveniently
omitted to mention that this is the fourth time since 2016 that ministers have tried to impose mass deregulation in children’s social care.'
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) said, 'Some of the changes in the
Regulations seem suspiciously close to the ‘freedoms’ that were in the original draft of the Children and Social Work Bill, [in 2016] clauses that were subsequently thrown out by a coalition of Parliamentarians, after a vigorous campaign by civil society groups and
service users.'
An article in the Guardian last week led Vicky Ford, the Minister for Children and Families, to write to them herself in order to refute the claims that children in care would be worse off. In the letter Mrs Ford says, 'Any amendments should only to be used when absolutely necessary, with senior management oversight, and must be consistent with the overarching safeguarding and welfare duties that remain in place. They will remain in
place only for so long as needed.'
The government's article explains why thirteen of the changes described in the Guardian are not accurate.
It will be important to see what happens on the 25th September 2020, when these
'temporary' changes could end.
www.independent.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
