Safeguarding: Changes to the Children and Social Work Act 2017
The Children and Social Work Act received royal assent in April 2017 and will be implemented in 2018-2019.
The Act made changes to:
- Improving support for looked after children in England and Wales especially for those leaving care.
- Enable better learning about effective approaches to child protection and care in England.
- Establish a new regulatory regime for the social work profession in England.
Current Local Children’s Boards will be abolished and a revised model implemented, incorporating three local safeguarding partners, the local authority, the clinical commissioning group and the police who will make arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
A Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will be established by the Secretary of State to identify serious child safeguarding cases which raise issues that are complex or of national importance. This change will replace the current system of local serious case reviews with a system of national and local reviews to ensure consistency and effective learning dissemination.
See the