(1)Local authorities shall perform their functions under this Act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State.
(2)The Secretary of State may make regulations in relation to the performance of the functions assigned to local authorities by this Act and in relation to the activities of voluntary organisations in so far as those activities are concerned with the like purposes.
(3)Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing subsection, regulations under this section may make provision for the boarding-out of persons by local authorities and voluntary organisations, whether under any enactment or otherwise, and may provide—
(a)for the recording by local authorities and voluntary organisations of information relating to persons with whom persons are boarded out as aforesaid, and to persons who are willing to have persons boarded out with them;
(b)for securing that persons shall not be boarded out in any household unless that household is for the time being approved by such local authority or voluntary organisation as may be prescribed by the regulations;
(c)in the case of a child, for securing that, where possible, the person with whom any child is to be boarded out is either of the same religious persuasion as the child or gives an undertaking that the child shall be brought up in that religious persuasion ;
(d)for securing that persons boarded out as aforesaid, and the places in which they are boarded out, shall be supervised and inspected by a local authority or voluntary organisation, as the case may be, and that those persons shall be removed from those places if their welfare appears to require it.