Local Authorities:
Overview of Duties owed to Children
Page 2
Copyright David Vavrecka March 2005-All
rights reserved.
No part of this document may
be copied or used without the written
permission of the author.
15. Other
public funds/services, including state
education and NHS treatment are not
prohibited, and those with a ‘without
recourse to public funds’ restriction are
not precluded from using these, and can even
claim contributory benefits (e.g.
contributory job-seekers allowance)
16.
Persons entering UK must demonstrate
they have adequate accommodation (sponsor or
applicant must own or exclusively occupy)
and unless entry is for settlement, must
have an intention to leave the
UK
Entry of Children into UK
17.
Variety of ways in which children can
legally enter UK, which depend on who they
are, or intend to join. Paragraphs 296
to 316 of the Rules provide the categories
which in summary are:
(a)
child seeking to join or accompany a parent
present and settled in the UK or
who has been admitted for settlement, where
there are serious and compelling
family or other considerations which
make exclusion of child undesirable and
where
there
are suitable arrangements made for the
child’s care
(b)
child must be 18, unmarried and must be
leading an independent life or
have an independent family unit and
(c)
can and will be
maintained and accommodated adequately and
without
recourse to public funds
LOCAL AUTHORITY DUTIES
Education
18.
No restriction on access to education in
UK. Local Education Authorities remain
under a duty to provide education for school
age children, to those living in their area
temporarily or permanently
Child Protection
19.
Powers and duties to investigate arise
regardless of nationality or immigration
status
Provision of Services
20.
Children 1989 duties are in
relation to ‘children in need’, children
under 5, and children generally (e.g. family
centres, day care). None of Children
Act provisions below are restricted on
account of the parents or child’s
immigration status; physical presence is
sufficient for the duties and powers to
arise
21.
Section 17 creates the general duty of
every local authority to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children within their
area who are in need, and so far as is
consistent with this duty , to promote the
upbringing of such children by their
families
22.
Definition of ‘children in need’ in
section 17(10) covers children already
suffering and those that may if help is not
provided to them. Any service the
local authority provides to a child in need
under its general duty (set out in section
17 and Sch 2,Part 1) may also be provided to
the child’s family or any member of the
family, as a family support service, if it
is provided ‘with a view to safeguarding or
promoting the child’s welfare[3].
Family includes any person who has parental
responsibility for the child and any other
person with whom he has been living[4]
23.
The local authority has to take
reasonable steps to identify the extent to
which there are children in need in its area
and any assessment the local authority may
carry out should take account of the
particular needs of the child, including
religious persuasion, racial origin, and
cultural and linguistic background.
The needs assessment or child protection
enquiry is conducted using the Framework for
the Assessment of Children in Need and their
Families[5]
24.
Section 20 provision that requires a
local authority to provide accommodation for
any child in need within their area who
appears to them to require accommodation as
a result of –
(a) there being no person who has parental
responsibility for him;
(b) his being lost or having been abandoned
(c) the person who has been caring for him
being prevented, whether or nor permanently,
and for whatever reason) from providing him
with suitable accommodation
25.
This obligation to provide accommodation
for a child does not extent to require
accommodation to be provided for the child’s
parent[6]
26.
Provision of accommodation is regarded
as a service which local authority may (and
in certain circumstances must) provide and
is included in the extended definition of
section 17[7].
This gives an additional power to section 20
because it relates to the child’s family, as
well as the child concerned, allowing the
local authority to accommodate a family[8]
27.
In R(G) v Barnet, R(W) v Lambeth and R(A)
v Lambeth [2003] UKHL 57, [2004] 1 FLR 454,
the House of Lords considered three court of
appeal decisions in relation to the extent
of the section 17 duties, clarifying that
the duty is general (not owed to individual
children) and social services have the power
to offer accommodation to a family, but were
not obliged to do so.
