Children in care at heightened risk since coronavirus

Children’s rights campaigners have claimed that changes to legal protections for children in care have been akin to ‘deregulation on steroids’.

Introduced by the UK government as an emergency response to the coronavirus crisis, one of the key relaxations is the removal of the requirement for a social worker to visit or contact a child in care every six weeks, reducing it to ‘as soon as is reasonably practicable’.

Along with the nine other relaxed regulations, activists have called the move an ‘outrageous assault on safeguards’ and warned that children would be harmed. They are also concerned that there was no public consultation or parliamentary scrutiny and they say many of the changes have been proposed by the government before.

Carolyne Willow, the director of Article 39, a charity that campaigns for the rights of children in institutional settings, said: “This outright assault on safeguards protecting the most vulnerable children is outrageous. Safeguards are there to protect children from harm, so it goes without saying that these changes forced through without any public consultation or parliamentary scrutiny will harm children.

“The government has produced no evidence to back up its claim that changes to 10 different sets of regulations are in response to the pressures of lockdown. It has also conveniently omitted to mention that this is the fourth time since 2016 that ministers have tried to impose mass deregulation in children’s social care.”

The ‘temporary’ measures are set to expire on 25 September. The government maintains that the measures will enable overstretched children’s services greater flexibility.