138.Section 34 amends the existing powers in section 12 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 which enable regulations to provide for the independent review of qualifying determinations, to ensure that the provisions are aligned with the new provisions that relate to the independent review of qualifying determinations in relation to local authority foster carers set out in paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 (see new paragraph 12F) and Schedule 2 (transitory provisions).
139.Subsection (2) amends section 12 to clarify that the regulations are to provide for the application for a review to be made to the appropriate Minister, and that the review is to be by a panel constituted by that Minister. By virtue section 144(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and Schedule 11 to the Government of Wales Act 2006, “appropriate Minister” means, in relation to England, the Secretary of State and in relation to Wales, Welsh Ministers.
140.Subsections (3) to (7) provide that the regulations may impose a duty to make a payment to the appropriate Minister of such sums as the appropriate Minister may determine, though the sums payable to the national authority must not, taking one financial year with another, exceed the costs incurred in performing the independent review functions. These provisions replace the existing powers under which it is the independent review panel which has a power to recover the costs of a review.
141.Section 45 of the Children Act 2004 gives the Secretary of State the power to establish, through regulations, a scheme for the registration of private foster carers. Section 46 confers equivalent powers on the Welsh Ministers. These provisions allow the regulations to specify, for example, how a local authority should determine suitability of private fostering arrangements, the grounds on which individuals may be disqualified from private fostering, how individuals may appeal against decisions regarding their registration and how the registration scheme application would work in practice.
142.Section 47 provides that if no regulations have been made under either section within fours years of Royal Assent, then the relevant section will cease to have effect. This operates independently in England and Wales, so if regulations are not made in England within the four year period, the power in section 45 (to make regulations in England) expires even if regulations have been made under section 46 in Wales (and vice versa).
143.Section 35 amends section 47 so that the powers will not lapse for a further 3 years i.e. until November 2011.
144.Private fostering is regulated by Part 9 of and Schedule 8 to the 1989 Act and the Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005/1533.
145.A “privately fostered” child is one who:
is cared for by a person who is not a relative and who does not have parental responsibility and is provided with accommodation in that person’s home, and;
is under the age of 16, or under the age of 18 if they are disabled,
where the care and accommodation have been provided for more than 28 days (or where the intention is to accommodate for longer than 28 days). This is defined in section 66 of the 1989 Act.