Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to incentivise local authorities to improve levels of participation by vulnerable children in decision-making on their care.

The statutory framework around care planning makes clear that local authorities (LAs) should take into account a child’s wishes before making decisions affecting them and their care. This is set out in section 22 of the Children Act 1989.

In addition, the corporate parenting principles, introduced through the Children and Social Work Act 2017, specifically require LAs to encourage children and young people to express their views, wishes and feelings; and that the LA acts upon these. The accompanying statutory guidance, published in February 2018, highlights the importance of understanding and acting on the views of all looked-after children, including those with disabilities, special educational needs and other barriers to participation. The guidance also sets out a number of examples of how LAs can involve children, including vulnerable children, in decision-making on their care. Ofsted’s framework for the inspection of LA children’s services considers the application of the corporate parenting principles when determining what judgement to award local authorities.

The corporate parenting principles guidance can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-corporate-parenting-principles-to-looked-after-children-and-care-leavers.