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Children’s minister: ‘Most social care duty exemptions no longer needed’

2 mins read Social Care
The government has told councils that most exemptions from children's social care duties introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic are no longer required.
Children's minister Vicky Ford said 87 councils had used exemptions from social care duties. Picture: UK Parliament
Children's minister Vicky Ford said 87 councils had used exemptions from social care duties. Picture: UK Parliament

But the laws will remain in place until the end of September as planned and councils can still relax their duties to vulnerable children when they have “strong justification”, children’s minister Vicky Ford has said.

Some restrictions may also be extended beyond September, the government has confirmed.

In a written parliamentary statement, Ford said that the emergency legislation was brought in during the pandemic in anticipation of councils finding it impossible to meet their duties, due to staff shortages and sickness.

But “our monitoring has shown that the majority of the regulatory flexibilities have been rarely used and only when needed in response to coronavirus”, said Ford.

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