Section 27: Duty to provide information, advice and assistance
72.Section 27 places a duty on Welsh local authorities to establish and maintain a service providing information, advice and assistance to parents and prospective parents in accordance with the section. Subsection (2) requires local authorities to provide parents and prospective parents with prescribed information on the provision of childcare and on other services or facilities, or publications, that may benefit them or children or young people. The details of the information which must be provided will be dealt with in regulations.
73.Subsection (3) requires the Welsh Assembly, when prescribing in regulations the information which must be provided, to have regard to the needs of the parents of disabled children and young people. Subsection (4) allows local authorities in Wales to provide additional information to parents and prospective parents and to provide information to other persons.
74.The section requires local authorities to provide advice and assistance to parents or prospective parents using or seeking childcare and to ensure that the information service is accessible to those who might benefit from it, in particular parents who might otherwise have difficulty accessing it.
75.Subsection (7) requires local authorities to take account of guidance issued by the Welsh Assembly when carrying out their functions.
76.Subsection (8) defines what is meant by a disabled child or young person for the purposes of section 27.
