Foster Children Act 1980

5 Notification by persons maintaining, or proposing to maintain, foster children

(1) A person who proposes to maintain as a foster child a child not already in his care shall give written notice thereof to the local authority in whose area the premises in which the child is to be kept are situated, not less than two weeks and not more than four weeks before he receives the child, unless he receives him in an emergency.

(2) A person who maintains a foster child—

(a) whom he received in an emergency, or

(b) who became a foster child while in his care,

shall give written notice thereof to the local authority in whose area the premises in which the child is being kept are situated, not later than 48 hours after he receives the child or, as the case may be, after the child becomes a foster child.

(3) A notice under subsection (1) or (2) above shall specify

(a) the date on which it is intended that the child should be received or (as the case may be) on which the child was in fact received or became a foster child, and

(b) the premises in which the child is to be or is being kept.

(4) Where a person who is maintaining one or more foster children changes his permanent address or the premises in which the child is, or the children are, kept, he shall give written notice to the local authority—

(a) not less than two weeks and not more than four weeks before the change, or

(b) if the change is made in an emergency, not later than 48 hours after the change,

specifying the new address or premises ; and if the new premises are in the area of another local authority, or of a local authority in Scotland, the authority to whom the notice is given shall inform that other authority and give them such of the particulars mentioned in subsection (5) below as are known to them.

(5) At the request of the local authority, a person maintaining or proposing to maintain a foster child shall give them, so far as known to him, the following particulars—

(a) the name, sex and date and place of birth of the child; and

(b) the name and address of every person who is a parent or guardian or acts as a guardian of the child or from whom the child was or is to be received.