Law Commission asked to review legislation on social care for disabled children
The Law Commission of England and Wales has been asked by the Department for Education to review the legal framework governing the social care of disabled children to ensure that the law is “fair, modern and accessible”.
The Government's law reform advisory body suggested that the law on children’s social care is currently governed by a “patchwork of legislation” – some of which dates back more than five decades.
It said: “This has contributed to variation in service provision by local authorities, and unnecessarily complicated routes to accessing support for the parents and care givers of disabled children.”
Claire Coutinho, the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing has asked the Law Commission to undertake a review of the law, and set out the following objectives:
- To recommend a solution to the patchwork of legislation that currently governs social care for disabled children.
- To improve how the law on social care for disabled children fits in with the law relating to children’s social care more broadly.
- To recommend a route to review the outdated language and definitions underpinning the law on social care for disabled children.
The Law Commission noted that the “overarching aim” of the review would be to “simplify and strengthen the law, ensuring that the system is fair and works for parents, care givers and local authorities”.
The proposed project was recommended in the Government’s 2022 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which heard from families of disabled children struggling to understand what support they are entitled to and how to access it.
The Commission has revealed it has taken “immediate steps” to recruit a lawyer to conduct the anticipated project.
Lottie Winson
