Law Commission Consultation on Kinship Care (Consultation Paper)

We provisionally propose that where a child is living with a kinship carer as defined in section 22I of the Children Act 1989 (but where the child has not been living with the kinship carer for at least one year immediately before the application, such that section 10(5B) of the Children Act 1989 is not satisfied), the kinship carer be eligible to apply for a child arrangements order without first requiring permission from the court to do so.

Do consultees agree?

We provisionally propose that when making a “live with” child arrangements order in favour of a kinship carer, the court should be required to consider the potential for reunification of the child with their parents when deciding on the duration of the order.

Do consultees agree?

We provisionally propose that the court should, when making a “live with” child arrangements order in favour of a kinship carer, be required to consider whether the best interests of the child require an order to be made under section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989, requiring any person other than the kinship carer to obtain permission before being able to apply for any order under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (a child arrangements order, prohibited steps order, or specific issue order).

Do consultees agree?

We invite consultees who are, or have been, kinship carers holding a “live with” child arrangements order:

1. to share their experience on whether when making the order, the court also imposed a requirement on the parents of the child to obtain permission before making any future application; and
2. if no requirement for permission was made, to share their views on whether they think it would have been helpful for such a requirement to have been included.

We ask for consultees’ views on whether in all applications for a child arrangements “live with” order where the applicant is (or will be) a kinship carer, a welfare report under section 7 of the Children Act 1989 should form a mandatory part of the Child Impact Report.

We ask for consultees’ views on whether when considering a section 8 order application by a kinship carer there are any factors which a Child Impact Report, or a welfare report under section 7 of the Children Act 1989 (if mandatory), should be required to investigate which are not already contained within the section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989 welfare checklist.