Government plans "would allow councils to opt out of child protection laws"

Forty organisations concerned with children’s social care have joined forces to oppose government plans that they say would allow local authorities to exempt themselves from almost any duty now imposed by children’s legislation.

Umbrella group Together for Children said proposals in the Children and Social Work Bill would excuse councils from legal duties towards vulnerable children, young people and families to test whether such deregulation should apply nationally.

The Bill is before the House of Lords and is due to be debated on 18 October.

Clauses 29 to 33 allow statutory duties in primary and secondary legislation relating to children’s social care to be exempted or modified for two periods of three years each.

Individual local authorities would apply for such exemptions. These would take effect through statutory instruments, which cannot be amended in Parliament and which are rarely voted down.

Clause 29 of the Bill would allow the secretary of state to exempt one or more councils from a legal duty with the purpose of enabling “a local authority in England to test different ways of working with a view to achieving better outcomes under children’s social care legislation or achieving the same outcomes more efficiently”.

This can be done only at a local authority’s request but under Clause 32 if a secretary of state has intervened in a local children’s service they would then gain the power to remove or alter the duties of the council concerned.

A council must consult before applying for an exemption but the Bill does not require publication of the results of such consultations, the group said.

Martha Spurrier, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: “In one fell swoop, these proposals would let councils opt out of 80 years of children’s care legislation. The essential protections those laws enshrine are the product of decades of learning, public consultation, parliamentary scrutiny and, sometimes, the tragic consequences of failure by the state to keep children safe from harm. With no consultation, this Government has decided those protections are dispensable.”

Mark Smulian