2017 No. 918 (C. 76)
Children And Young Persons, England And Wales
Social Work, England
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2017
Made 13th September 2017

The Secretary of State makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 70(2) and (3) of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
2017 c. 16.

1 Citation
These Regulations may be cited as the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2017.

2 Provisions coming into force on 31st October 2017
The following provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 come into force on the 31st October 2017—
(a) section 8 (care orders: permanence provisions);
(b) section 9 (adoption: duty to have regard to relationship with adopters);
(c) section 33 (power to secure proper performance); and
(d) section 42 (improvement standards).
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State
Robert Goodwill Minister of State Department for Education 13th September 2017

EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations bring specified provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (c.16) (“the Act”) into force. These Regulations are the first commencement regulations made under the Act. Section 10, Schedule 1 and Part 3 of the Act came into force when the Act was passed.
Regulation 2 commences the following provisions of the Act on 31st October 2017:
section 8 which makes amendments to section 31 of the Children Act 1989 in relation to the definition of ‘permanence provision’;
section 9 which makes amendments to section 1(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 to require courts and adoption agencies to consider a child’s relationship with their prospective adopters where the child has already been placed with them;
section 33 which extends the Secretary of State’s intervention powers under section 497A of the Education Act 1996 as far as they relate to functions specified in section 50 of the Children Act 2004 to Combined Authorities in England;
section 42 which allows the Secretary of State to determine and publish improvement standards for social workers in England and carry out assessments as to whether those standards have been met (or make arrangements for others to set those standards and assess people against them).
A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.