Office of Public Sector Information
Regulation 5(1)
1. In the case of a child who is in care, whether an application should be made to discharge the care order.
2. Where the responsible authority is a local authority whether the authority should seek a change in the child’s legal status.
3. Arrangements for contact, and whether there is any need for changes in the arrangements in order to promote contact with the child’s family and others so far as is consistent with his or her welfare.
4. The responsible authority’s immediate and long term arrangements for the child, previous arrangements in respect of the child, and whether a change in those arrangements is needed and consideration of alternative courses of action.
5. Where the responsible authority is a local authority, whether an independent visitor should be appointed if one has not already been appointed.
6. Whether arrangements need to be made for the time when the child will no longer be looked after by the responsible authority.
7. Whether plans need to be made to find a permanent substitute family for the child.
Regulation 5(1)
1. The child’s state of health including his or her physical, oral, emotional and mental health.
2. The child’s health history including, so far as practicable, his or her family health history.
3. The effect of the child’s health and health history on his or her development.
4. Any need the child has for mental health services.
5. Existing arrangements for the child’s medical and dental care, treatment and health surveillance, with particular reference to mental health services.
6. The possible need for an appropriate course of action which should be identified to assist necessary change of such care, treatment or surveillance.
7. The possible need for preventive measures, such as vaccination and immunisation, screening for vision and hearing and for advice and guidance on health, including mental health, and oral health, and on personal care and health promotion issues appropriate to the child’s needs.
8. Taking account of the information available in respect of the matters set out in paragraphs 1 to 7 including the reports of any assessment, whether the child’s health needs will be met in the proposed placement.
Regulation 5(1)
1. The child’s educational history.
2. The need to achieve continuity in the child’s education and to promote the child’s educational achievement.
3. The need to identify any educational need which the child may have and to take action to meet that need.
4. The need to carry out any assessment in respect of any special educational need under the Education Act 1996(11) and meet any such needs identified in a statement of special educational needs made under section 324 of that Act.
5. Taking account of the information available in paragraphs 1 to 4 of this Schedule, whether the child’s educational needs will be met in the proposed placement.
Regulation 5(8)
1. The type of accommodation to be provided and its address together with the name of any person who will be responsible for the child at that accommodation on behalf of the responsible authority.
2. The details of any services to be provided for the child.
3. The respective responsibilities of the responsible authority and—
(a) the child;
(b) any parent of his or hers; and
(c) any person who is not a parent of his or hers but who has parental responsibility for him or her.
4. What delegation there has been by the persons referred to in paragraph 3(b) and (c) of this Schedule to the responsible authority of parental responsibility for the child’s day to day care.
5. The arrangements for involving those persons and the child in decision making with respect to the child having regard—
(a) to the local authority’s duty under sections 20(6) (involvement of children before provision of accommodation) and 22(3) to (5) of the Act (general duties of the local authority in relation to children looked after by them);
(b) the duty of the voluntary organisation under section 61(1) and (2) of the Act (duties of voluntary organisations); and
(c) the duty of the person carrying on a registered children’s home under section 64(1) and (2) of the Act (welfare of children in registered children’s homes).
6. The arrangements for contact between the child and—
(a) his or her parents;
(b) any person who is not a parent of his or hers but who has parental responsibility for him or her; and
(c) any relative, friend or other person connected with him or her,
and if appropriate. the reasons why contact with any such person would not be reasonably practicable or would be inconsistent with the child’s welfare.
7. The arrangements for notifying changes in arrangements for contact to any of the persons referred to in paragraph 6.
8. In the case of a child aged 16 or over whether section 20(11) of the Act (accommodation of a child of 16 or over despite parental opposition) applies.
9. The expected duration of arrangements and the steps which should apply to bring the arrangements to an end, including arrangements for rehabilitation of the child with the person with whom he or she was living before the voluntary arrangements were made or some other suitable person, having regard in particular, in the case of a local authority looking after a child, to section 23(6) of the Act (duty to place children where practicable with parents etc.) and paragraph 15 of Schedule 2 to the Act (maintenance of contact between child and family).
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations revoke and replace the Arrangements for Placement of Children (General) Regulations 1991 in relation to Wales. The Regulations make provision for the arrangements for placement of children by local authorities, voluntary organisations and persons carrying on private children’s homes in Wales. The placements may be with foster parents, in community homes, voluntary children’s homes or private children’s homes and under other arrangements (but not in a home provided in accordance with arrangements made by the Assembly under section 82(5) of the Children Act 1989).
Regulation 4 provides for the making of arrangements for accommodation and maintenance of, children, the promotion of their welfare and for the planning of placements.
Regulation 5 makes provision for the matters to be considered by a responsible authority when making arrangements to place a child, including the procedures to be followed where a placement outside the area in which a child normally lives is being considered. The regulation also places a responsible authority under a duty to make a written record of the reasons for its actions under the regulation.
Regulation 6 provides for the responsible authority to notify certain people of the arrangements for the placement of a child, and specifies a time period within which notification must take place, along with a requirement that where appropriate, the responsible authority must request certain bodies to initiate a transfer of relevant records.
Regulation 7 requires voluntary organisations and those persons operating private children’s homes to promote contact between a child and certain people.
Regulation 8 requires a responsible authority to make arrangements for a child’s health to be assessed, provision of health care services during the placement and the registration of the child with a general practitioner and a dentist.
Regulation 9 requires a responsible authority to keep a written case record for every child they place, and provides for the type of information to be kept in that record.
Regulation 10 provides for the length of time a case record must be kept and for the security and confidentiality of those records.
Regulation 11 requires a local authority, a voluntary organisation and a person carrying on a private children’s home, to keep a register containing details of all the children placed by them.
Regulation 12 requires a voluntary organisation or a person carrying on a private children’s home, to provide access to records to Welsh family proceedings officers or to officers of the service.
Regulation 13 provides for the arrangements to be made between a local authority and an area authority, when a local authority arranges for the area authority to carry out some of its functions in respect of a child that is being looked after by the local authority.
Regulation 14 provides for the application of the regulations to short term placements.
Regulation 15 revokes the Arrangements for Placement of Children (General) Regulations 1991 in relation to Wales.
The Placement of Children (Wales) Regulations 2007