Children: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 445); i); if he will publish the (a) local authorities, (b) organisations and (c) social workers who asked for the changes; and whether those (i) organisations and (ii) individuals were consulted on the Regulations.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 23rd June 2020

The urgency with which the Regulations needed to be drafted meant that a formal consultation was not possible, views were sought from the department’s key delivery partners and stakeholders. As a departmental official, the Chief Social Worker is routinely involved in development of policy on children’s social care providing independent expert advice.

The department does not intend to publish the names of local authorities, organisations and social workers who provided views on the regulation changes as we did not seek the information on that basis.

Our approach to monitoring the Regulations is based on a triangulation of information gathered from a variety of sources, including local authorities, charities and key partners including Ofsted. I have committed to reporting to Parliament before summer recess on the outcome of the work the department has done to monitor the use of the amended regulations and the frequency in which they have been used.

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