Item details

This submission is in response to the inquiry’s initial examination of the provisions of the Children and Young Persons Bill and addresses three major issues:

• The Children and Young Persons Bill needs to contain a provision that would enable the regulation of provision of placements by former foster carers to young people between the ages of 18 and 21, in order to ensure both foster carers and young people receive the support they need to provide the best possible platform for moving towards independence at a more suitable age.
• The government should explicitly fulfil its White Paper pledge to create a statutory duty for local authorities to make sufficient and diverse provision of quality placements.
• The bill can be used to address the anomaly that foster carers who are subject to an allegation are able to be, and regularly are, suspended without pay.