The Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Further to sections 16A to 16Q of the Children Act 2004 inserted by the Children and Social Work Act 2017, these Regulations make provision relating to the functions of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (in connection with section 16B(1)) and local safeguarding partners (in connection with section 16F(1)). The safeguarding partners for each local authority area are the local authority, clinical commissioning group and chief officer of police. The Regulations also specify relevant agencies for the purposes of section 16E(3) of the Act.

Regulation 3 specifies the criteria to be taken into account by the Panel for the purpose of the Panel’s functions, which are to identify serious child safeguarding cases in England which raise issues that are complex or of national importance, and where appropriate, to arrange for those cases to be reviewed.

Regulation 4 describes the eligibility and selection process for appointment as a reviewer, in particular, the Panel’s duties regarding selection and appointment.

Regulation 5 describes the process of removal of a reviewer from a review (and what action the Panel and the Secretary of State must take in that regard).

Regulations 7 and 8 describe the Panel’s supervisory powers in relation to a national review, and the form and content a review report must take.

Regulations 9 and 10 specify the Panel’s duties regarding provision of the report to the Secretary of State and publication of the report.

Regulation 11 specifies the criteria to be taken into account by the safeguarding partners for a local authority area for the purpose of the safeguarding partners’ functions to make arrangements to identify serious child safeguarding cases which raise issues of importance in relation to the area, and for those cases to be reviewed.

Regulation 13 specifies the timeframe in which the safeguarding partners may remove a reviewer from a local review.

Regulation 14 details the procedure for a local review, in particular regarding the duty on safeguarding partners to monitor the time being taken to conduct a review and the quality of that review.

Regulation 15 describes the form and content a local review report must take.

Regulations 16 and 17 specify the duties on the safeguarding partners regarding provision of the local review report to the Secretary of State and the Panel, and publication of the report.

The Schedule to these Regulations lists relevant agencies for the purposes of section 16E(3) which specifies that a relevant agency in relation to a local authority area in England means a person who is specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State and exercises a function in that area in relation to children. The relevant agencies list will be used by safeguarding partners in their function set out in section 16E(1) to make arrangements for the safeguarding partners and any relevant agencies that they consider appropriate to work together in exercising their functions, so far as the functions are exercised for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum will be available alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk