Foster Children Act 1980

Notification of fostering to local authorities

4 Notification by parents

(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for requiring parents whose children are, or are going to be, maintained as foster children to give to the local authority for the area where the children are, or are going to be, living as foster children such information about the fostering as may be specified in the regulations.

(2) Regulations under this section may include such incidental and supplementary provisions as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

5 Notification by persons maintaining, or proposing to maintain, foster children

(1) A person who proposes to maintain as a foster child a child not already in his care shall give written notice thereof to the local authority in whose area the premises in which the child is to be kept are situated, not less than two weeks and not more than four weeks before he receives the child, unless he receives him in an emergency.

(2) A person who maintains a foster child—

(a) whom he received in an emergency, or

(b) who became a foster child while in his care,

shall give written notice thereof to the local authority in whose area the premises in which the child is being kept are situated, not later than 48 hours after he receives the child or, as the case may be, after the child becomes a foster child.

(3) A notice under subsection (1) or (2) above shall specify

(a) the date on which it is intended that the child should be received or (as the case may be) on which the child was in fact received or became a foster child, and

(b) the premises in which the child is to be or is being kept.

(4) Where a person who is maintaining one or more foster children changes his permanent address or the premises in which the child is, or the children are, kept, he shall give written notice to the local authority—

(a) not less than two weeks and not more than four weeks before the change, or

(b) if the change is made in an emergency, not later than 48 hours after the change,

specifying the new address or premises ; and if the new premises are in the area of another local authority, or of a local authority in Scotland, the authority to whom the notice is given shall inform that other authority and give them such of the particulars mentioned in subsection (5) below as are known to them.

(5) At the request of the local authority, a person maintaining or proposing to maintain a foster child shall give them, so far as known to him, the following particulars—

(a) the name, sex and date and place of birth of the child; and

(b) the name and address of every person who is a parent or guardian or acts as a guardian of the child or from whom the child was or is to be received.

6 Notification by persons ceasing to maintain foster children

(1) If a foster child dies, the person who was maintaining him shall give, not later than 48 hours after the death, written notice of the death to the local authority and to the person from whom the child was received.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, where a person who has been maintaining a foster child at any premises—

(a) ceases to maintain that foster child at those premises, and

(b) the circumstances are such that no notice is required to be given under section 5(4) or subsection (1) above,

that person shall give written notice thereof to the local authority not later than 48 hours after he ceases to maintain that foster child at those premises.

(3) A person need not give the notice required by subsection (2) above in consequence of his ceasing to maintain a foster child at any premises if, at the time he so ceases, he intends within 27 days again to maintain that foster child at those premises; but if—

(a) he subsequently abandons that intention, or

(b) that period expires without his having given effect to it,

he shall give the said notice within 48 hours of that event.

(4) Where a foster child is removed or removes himself from the care of the person maintaining him, that person shall give the local authority at their request the name and address, if known, of the person (if any) into whose care the child has been removed.