Looked After Children

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Looked After Children in Scotland Lyn Odonnell Contents Introduction 3 History of care 4 Government Policies 5 Research and Reports on Looked After Children 6 Recommendations 7 Appendix 8 Introduction Looked after refers to children and young people looked after by the government and there Local Authority (local council). Looked after children and young people is also used to describe "accommodated" children and young people who are children in out-of-home care as cannot live with their parents. ( www.nspcc.org.uk) The Local Authority provides a service to a child or young person by “looking after” them in; foster care, residential care, secure unit care, kinship care, at home but under…show more content…
It sets out the duties and powers available to public authorities to support children and their families and to intervene when the child's welfare requires it. Under pressure over serious child protection cases, the 2001Scottish executive published a children's charter, setting out how carers and professionals should protect and respect rights of children. The Protection of Children Act 1999 was passed in England, aiming to prevent paedophiles from working with children; a similar act was passed in Scotland in 2003.(Scottish Executive Publications) Government Policies and Looked After Children Looked After Children fall into two main categories: 1) Looked After and Accommodated: children and young people placed by the local authority and/or the Children’s Hearings system with foster carers, adoption services, residential care homes, with relatives in kinship care. 2) Looked After at Home under a supervision order, at home with parents receiving support and assistance to address issues of why they are in need of care. (Norrie K 1998) The legal framework that the local authority has to abide by setting out its responsibilities towards "looked after children" is the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007: * Section 25: children and young people looked after and…show more content…
(Robert Gordon University 2006). Government reports and agencies in regards to Looked after Children GIRFEC (Getting it right for every child) 2007 is centred around child protection, and its guidance for care providers in relation to adoption, kinship care and fostering and how child protection issues are risk assessed, information is shared as well as focusing on providing the best outcomes for a child. Looking after the Family ' focused attention on the value of kinship care and was followed by The National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy published in December 2006 which identified support as central to further development of kinship care. The Looked after Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 builds on a range of policy initiatives which include: * These Are Our Bairns and We Can and Must Do Better. * Moving Forward in Kinship and Foster Care and the National Residential Child Care

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