THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES BILL
Second Supplementary Memorandum prepared by the Department for
Education
For the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee
Introduction
1. This Memorandum supplements the Memorandum submitted to the
Committee in June 2013, and the Supplementary Memorandum submitted
to the Committee dated 2nd October. It contains further information for the
Committee on a new provision to be included in the Children and Families
Bill that confers power on the Secretary of State to make delegated
legislation.
New Clause – Young Carers
2. This new Clause consolidates existing rights for young carers from the
Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 (“CRSA 1995”) and the
Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 (“CDCA 2000”)1 and inserts new
sections into Part 3 of the Children Act 1989. The new sections will also
make the following key changes to make it easier for young carers to get
an assessment, to support whole family approaches in line with provisions
in the Care Bill, and to protect young people from inappropriate or
excessive caring roles. They will do this by–
a. simplifying the legislation relating to young carers, making rights
and duties clearer to both young people and practitioners;
b. extending the right to an assessment of needs for support to all
young carers under the age of 18 regardless of who they care for,
what type of care they provide or how often they provide it;
c. making it clear to local authorities that they must carry out an
assessment of a young carer's needs for support on request or on
the appearance of need; and
d. providing the appropriate links between children's and adults'
legislation to enable local authorities to combine the assessment of
a young carer with an assessment of the person they care for. This
will allow local services to consider the needs of the whole family
and to deliver coordinated packages of support.
New section 17ZB(8)
3. This enables the Secretary of State to make regulations making provision
about the carrying out of a young carer’s needs assessment. Those
regulations may, in particular, specify matters to which a local authority is
to have regard or is to determine in carrying out the assessment, the
manner in which an assessment is to be carried out and the form that
assessment is to take.
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It is currently intended that both the CRSA 1995 and the CDCA 2000 will be repealed in due
course.
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4. Sections 1(4) of the CRSA 1995 and 1(4) of the CDCA 2000 enable the
Secretary of State to give directions to local authorities about the manner
in which assessments under those Acts are to be carried out and the form
that such assessments must take. The reason for taking a regulationmaking power rather than a direction-giving one is because the
Government wishes that the provisions about how young carers’ needs
assessments are carried out reflect the provisions for the assessment of
the needs of adult carers, as provided for under the Care Bill. In addition,
the proposed new regulation-making power goes further than the current
direct-giving powers, for example by enabling the Secretary of State to
specify matters to which the local authority is to have regard or to
determine.
5. The Government believes that matters concerning the carrying out of
young carers’ needs assessments are procedural detail that is most
appropriately included in regulations which are made by the negative
resolution procedure. This procedure, whilst still providing a sufficient level
of scrutiny, also provides for the appropriate level of flexibility as it will
enable changes to the detail of the carrying out of assessments to be
made without undue delay. It also reflects the procedure for similar
regulations to be made under the Care Bill.
New section 17ZB(9)
6. This enables the Secretary of State to make regulations which amend the
list of enactments set out in new section 17ZA(6)(b) of the Children Act
1989 by adding, removing or varying entries. New section 17ZA(6) defines
a “care-related assessment” for the purposes of the new section 17ZA: an
assessment carried out under the provisions listed in 17ZA(6)(b) is a carerelated assessment. The Government considers it necessary to have a
power to amend that list by regulations because, in due course, it is likely
to be necessary to alter that list to reflect changes to legislation or the
creation of new types of assessment.
7. The Government considers it appropriate that this power is exercised by
the affirmative resolution procedure because the power provides for an
amendment to primary legislation by secondary legislation.
Department for Education
7 October 2013
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