22 November 2002
Section 3 inserts new Articles 34E and 34F into the Children Order which set out the detail of personal advisers and pathway plans. These Articles contain regulation-making powers enabling the Department to make further provision with regard to personal advisers and pathway plans.
Paragraph (1) enables the Department to make regulations to allow other individuals aged between 16 and 21 to have a personal adviser in addition to those children and young people listed in sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) who are entitled to a personal adviser by virtue of other provisions of the Children Order (as inserted by the Act).
Paragraph (2) gives the Department the power to make regulations about the functions of personal advisers.
Article 34F deals with the content of pathway plans and provides for regulations to be made giving more detail about what they are to cover and how they are to be reviewed.
Paragraph (1) defines a “pathway plan” for the purposes of Part IV of the Children Order. It provides that in respect of an eligible child the plan should set out the advice, assistance and support which an authority intends to provide while the young person is in care and after he or she has left care. The plan should also indicate when the young person might leave care. In relation to a relevant child who does not already have a pathway plan, it provides that the plan should set out the advice, assistance and support which the authority intends to provide.
Paragraph (2) enables the Department to make regulations about what may be included in pathway plans and how they are to be reviewed.