The Review of Children’s Cases (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations impose new obligations on the “responsible authority” in England (a local authority, voluntary organisation or a person carrying on a private children’s home) to appoint an independent reviewing officer (“IRO”) in connection with the review of each case of a child who is looked after or for whom accommodation is being provided.

Provision for requiring local authorities to appoint IROs was inserted in section 26 of the Children Act 1989 (review of cases) by section 118 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The requirements are applied to voluntary organisations by virtue of section 59(4) and (5) of the Children Act 1989. They are applied to persons providing private children’s homes (but only in cases where the child is not placed by a local authority or voluntary organisation) by virtue of paragraph 10 of Schedule 6 to the Children Act 1989.

Regulation 2 amends the Review of Children’s Cases Regulations 1991 by—

(a) inserting a new regulation 2A requiring IROs to be appointed in each child’s case and providing for the description of persons that may be appointed as IROs and the manner in which the IROs should carry out their functions;

(b) substituting a new regulation 3, providing for timing of reviews (including provision for reviews to be held when the IRO so directs);

(c) inserting a new regulation 8A requiring the responsible authority to inform the IRO about a failure to implement decisions of a review or a significant change of circumstances following a review.

These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.