5Report on the operation of this Act

(1)

For each reporting period, the Executive must prepare a report on the operation of this Act.

(2)

The reporting period is—

(a)

for the first report prepared after the adoption of a strategy, the period since its adoption;

(b)

in any other case, the period since the preparation of the preceding report under this section.

(3)

The report must include statements on the following matters, so far as relating to the reporting period—

(a)

what actions have been taken by the Executive, and Northern Ireland departments, for the purpose of achieving the outcomes set out in the children and young persons strategy;

(b)

what progress has been made towards achieving those outcomes, or the extent to which they have been achieved;

(c)

how children's authorities and other children's service providers have co-operated with each other in the provision of children's services;

(d)

how children's authorities have exercised the powers conferred by section 4(2);

(e)

how the well-being of children and young persons has improved.

(4)

The report must also identify—

(a)

any further opportunities for co-operation between children's authorities and other children's service providers that could help to achieve the outcomes set out in the strategy,

(b)

any other ways in which the well-being of children and young persons could be improved, and

(c)

any ways in which the children and young persons strategy might be revised in order to contribute to those improvements.

(5)

The Executive must prepare a report under this section—

(a)

not more than 18 months after the date on which it adopted a children and young person's strategy,

(b)

thereafter, during the lifetime of that strategy, at intervals of not more than 3 years, and

(c)

at the end of the lifetime of a strategy.

(6)

But subsection (5)(c) does not apply if a report was prepared under this section less than 6 months before the end of the lifetime of the strategy.

(7)

Children's authorities must co-operate with the Executive in the preparation of a report under this section.

(8)

The Executive must—

(a)

lay the report before the Assembly, and

(b)

publish it in such other manner as the Executive thinks appropriate.