Children and Social Work Act 2017 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2017

Provisions coming into force on 31 October 2017

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2017 bring specified provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (c.16) (“the Act”) into force on 31 October 2017.

The following provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 come into force on the 31st October 2017:

(a) section 8 (care orders: permanence provisions) – makes amendments to section 31 of the Children Act 1989 in relation to the definition of ‘permanence provision’;

(b) section 9 (adoption: duty to have regard to relationship with adopters) – makes amendments to section 1(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 to require courts and adoption agencies to consider a child’s relationship with their prospective adopters where the child has already been placed with them;

(c) section 33 (power to secure proper performance) – extends the Secretary of State’s intervention powers under section 497A of the Education Act 1996 as far as they relate to functions specified in section 50 of the Children Act 2004 to Combined Authorities in England; and

(d) section 42 (improvement standards) – allows the Secretary of State to determine and publish improvement standards for social workers in England and carry out assessments as to whether those standards have been met (or make arrangements for others to set those standards and assess people against them).

These are the first commencement regulations made under the Act. Section 10, Schedule 1 and Part 3 of the Act came into force when the Act was passed.

For the Commencement No 1 Regulations, click here. For the Act itself, click here.