The regulations, which previously applied during the second national lockdown in November and the regional tier system that preceded it, allowed meetings between children in care and potential adopters but no such exemption applied to potential kinship carers, such as friends or family members.
This prompted a threat of legal action by the charity Family Rights Group, which said the “failure to provide parity between potential kinship carers and adopters” was “discriminatory and unlawful”.
The government has now added what the charity calls a “significant” amendment to the Covid-19 regulations that come into force this week.
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 allows gatherings that are “reasonably necessary for the purposes of placing children, or facilitating children being placed, in the care of another person by social services, whether on a temporary or permanent basis”.
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