Friday 14 Mar 2014 @ 11:05
Ministry of Justice
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Landmark Children and Families Act 2014 gains royal assent

New changes to the law to give greater protection to vulnerable children.

The new Children and Families Act - given royal assent - will mean changes to the law to give greater protection to vulnerable children, better support for children whose parents are separating, a new system to help children with special educational needs and disabilities, and help for parents to balance work and family life.

The act also ensures vital changes to the adoption system can be put into practice, meaning more children who need loving homes are placed faster. Reforms for children in care can be implemented including giving them the choice to stay with their foster families until their 21st birthday.

Edward Timpson, Children and Families Minister, said:

The Children and Families Act is all about reforming services for vulnerable children - reflecting this government’s deep determination to give every child, whatever their start in life, an equal chance to make the best of themselves.

Our adoption reforms will help the 6,000 children who need loving homes to be adopted. Our reforms to special educational needs will see a system introduced which is designed around the needs of children and will support them up to the age of 25.

For children coming into the care system, the new 26-week time limit for care proceedings will reduce unnecessary delays. Virtual school heads will champion their education; children in residential care will live in safer, better quality homes and care leavers will have the option to stay with their foster families until they turn 21

The act will also make it easier for families to access more flexible childcare, and give young carers’ greater support.

The act includes a number of new measures to protect the welfare of children, including:

  • changes to the law to give children in care the choice to stay with their foster families until they turn 21
  • a new legal duty on schools to support children at school with medical conditions better
  • making young carers’ and parent carers’ rights to support from councils much clearer
  • reforms to children’s residential care to make sure homes are safe and secure, and to improve the quality of care vulnerable children receive
  • a requirement on all state-funded schools - including academies - to provide free school lunches on request for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2
  • amendments to the law to protect children in cars from the dangers of second-hand smoke

The act will also help people to better balance their work and home life with the following measures:

  • from April 2015, mothers, fathers and adopters can opt to share parental leave around their child’s birth or placement. This gives families more choice over taking leave in the first year - dads and mothers’ partners can take up to a year, or parents can take several months at the same time
  • from 1 October 2014, prospective fathers or a mother’s partner can take time off to attend up to 2 antenatal appointments
  • adoption leave and pay will reflect entitlements available to birth parents from April 2015 - no qualifying period for leave; enhanced pay to 90% of salary for the first 6 weeks; and time off to attend introductory appointments. Intended parents in surrogacy and ‘foster to adopt’ arrangements will also qualify for adoption leave and pay
  • extending the right to request flexible working to all employees from 30 June 2014
  • replacing the current statutory procedure, through which employers consider flexible working requests, with a duty on employers to consider with requests in a ‘reasonable’ manner

Jenny Willott, Employment Relations Minister, said:

Current workplace arrangements have not kept up with the times. The Children and Families Act will bring the way new parents balance their working and home lives into the 21st century.

By enabling any employee to request to work flexibly, we want to remove any cultural assumption that flexible working is only for women, or just for parents and carers. We want these reforms to bring about a culture change in Britain’s workplaces, allowing everyone to better balance work with their personal life in the way that works for them.

The new system is good for business as it will create a more motivated and flexible, talented workforce. Employers will be able to attract and retain women - from the boardroom to the shop floor - and prevent them from dropping out of the world of work once they start a family. Flexible working will also help widen the pool of talent in the labour market, helping to drive growth.

The act will also create a more efficient and effective family justice system which improves the experiences of children and families who go to court.

Family Justice and Civil Liberties Minister Simon Hughes, said:

We are making sure the welfare of children is at the heart of the family justice system.

We want to keep families away from the negative effects that going to court can have and to use alternative solutions when they are suitable. This is why we have changed the law to make sure that separating couples always consider mediation as an alternative to a courtroom battle.

When cases go to court we want them to happen in the least damaging way. So we are improving processes, reducing excessive delays, and we have also changed the law so that care cases must be completed within 26 weeks.

The family justice measures in the act include:

  • making it a requirement to attend a family mediation, information and assessment meeting to find out about and consider mediation before applying for certain types of court order unless an exemption applies
  • sending a clear signal to separated parents that courts will take account of the principle that both should continue to be involved in their children’s lives where that is safe and consistent with the child’s welfare
  • ensuring that expert evidence in family proceedings concerning children is permitted only when necessary to resolve the case justly, taking account of factors including the impact on the welfare of the child
  • introducing a maximum 26-week time limit for completing care and supervision proceedings, with the possibility of extending the time limit in a particular case for up to 8 weeks at a time, should that be necessary to resolve the proceedings justly

Over the coming months the measures made law yesterday will come into force. The government is currently consulting on a series of regulation changes on adoption and new guidance for social workers on how to navigate the new system, and we will issue the final SEN code of practice shortly ahead of reforms coming into force in September. By the summer the majority of councils will have virtual schools heads in post - helping improve educational outcomes for children in care.

The majority of the family justice provisions in the Children and Families Act will come into force on 22 April, at the same time as the launch of the new single family court.

Further roll out of yesterday’s legal changes will be announced in due course.

Notes to editors

The Children and Families Act 2014 takes forward the coalition government’s commitment to improve services for vulnerable children and support strong families. It reinforces wider reforms to ensure that all children and young people can succeed, no matter what their background.

The act will reform the systems for adoption, looked-after children, family justice and special educational needs. It will introduce changes to support the welfare of children. It will encourage growth in the childcare sector, introduce a new system of shared parental leave and ensure children in England have a strong advocate for their rights.

The provisions in the act span the responsibilities of the Department for Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department of Health.

Annexe - The Children and Families Act 2014

Adoption

We want more children being adopted by loving families with less delay. Part 1 of the act contains provisions to give effect to proposals set out in ‘An action plan for adoption: tackling delay’ and ‘Further action on adoption: finding more loving homes’.

Family justice

Part 2 improves the operation of the family justice system, as recommended by the independent family justice review. It will lead to a swifter system, with children’s best interests are at the heart of decision making.

Special educational needs

We will reform the system for children and young people with SEN, including those who are disabled, giving children, young people and their parents greater control and choice up to 25. Part 3 of the act contains provisions following the green paper: ‘Support and aspiration: a new approach to special educational needs and disability’ published by the Department for Education on 18 March 2011 and the follow up ‘Progress and next steps’ published 15 May 2012.

Childcare reform

Part 4 of the act contains various provisions relating to childcare, giving childminders more flexibility to work in agencies if they want to and making it easier for schools to offer more flexibility.

Welfare of children

Part 5 of the act contains various provisions relating to the welfare of children, including giving children in care the choice to stay with their foster families until they turn 21, making young carers’ and parent carers’ rights to support from councils much clearer, reforming children’s residential care to make sure homes are safe and secure and a requirement on all state-funded schools - including academies - to provide free school lunches on request for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2.

Children’s Commissioner

Part 6 reinforces the role of the Children’s Commissioner with a remit to ‘protect and promote children’s rights’.

Statutory rights to leave and pay

Part 7 of the act delivers the legislative commitments made in the government response to the modern workplaces consultation (November 2012). The provisions create a new employment right to shared parental leave and statutory shared parental pay for eligible working parents. All employed women continue to be eligible for maternity leave and statutory maternity pay or allowance in the same way as previously. If they choose to bring their leave and pay or allowance to an early end, eligible working parents can share the balance of the remaining leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay up to a total of 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay. Eligible adopters can use the new system for shared parental leave and pay. Adoption leave and pay include prospective parents in the ‘fostering for adoption’ system, and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement who are eligible, and intend to apply for, a parental order.

Time off work - ante-natal care, etc

Part 8 creates a new right for employees and qualifying agency workers to take unpaid time off work to attend up to two ante-natal appointments with a pregnant woman. The right is available to the pregnant woman’s husband, civil partner or partner (including same sex partners), the father or parent of the pregnant woman’s child, and intended parents in a surrogacy situation who meet specified conditions. Provision is made for paid and unpaid time off work for adopters to attend meetings in advance of a child being placed with them for adoption.

Right to request flexible working

Part 9 provides for the expansion of the right to request flexible working from employees who are parents or carers to all employees, and the removal of the statutory process that employers must currently follow when considering requests for flexible working. The government’s policy reforms for the right to request flexible working are set out in its paper ‘Modern workplaces - government response on flexible working’ (published in November 2012). This part sets out the statutory provisions to support those reforms.

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