The Foster Placement (Children) Regulations 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations replace with modifications the Boarding-out ofChildren (Foster Placement) Regulations 1988 (“the 1988 Regulations”).

The main changes are that under these Regulations:

(a) there is approval of foster parents and not households in which achild is to live and foster parents may now be approved only by onelocal authority or voluntary organisation at any one time;

(b) an emergency placement may be made with any approved foster parentfor not more than 24 hours while an immediate placement may be made witha relative or friend for not more than six weeks. Previously emergencyplacements only were permitted with a person in a household which wasapproved outside the normal approval procedure;

(c) local authority responsibilities in respect of children placed byvoluntary organisations are enhanced.

They apply to placements of children by local authorities andvoluntary organisations, other than placements to which the Placement ofChildren with Parents etc. Regulations 1991 apply and placements foradoption or with a person having parental responsibility for the child(regulation 2).

Part II of the Regulations relates to approvals and placements andrequires the foster parent with whom a child is placed to be approved bya local authority or voluntary organisation (regulation 3); makesprovision for reviews and terminations of approval (regulation 4); forthe placement of a child with a foster parent (regulation 5) and for thesupervision and termination of placements (regulations 6 and 7); allowsa local authority to make arrangements with a voluntary organisation tobe responsible for the placement of the child (regulation 8); theapplication of the Regulations to short-term placements (regulation 9);and placements outside England and Wales (regulation 10); and, by localauthorities only, emergency and immediate placements (regulation 11).

Part III of the Regulations provides for local authorities tomaintain a register of foster parents approved in their area (regulation12), for local authorities and voluntary organisations to maintain arecord for each foster parent they approve (regulation 13) and for theretention and confidentiality of the registers and records (regulation14).

Part IV of the Regulations makes provision for visits to childrenplaced with foster parents by voluntary organisations (regulations 15and 16).

Part V of the Regulations revokes the 1988 Regulations (regulation17).