The government announced it is to amend draft regulations that would have required DCSs to sign off individual decisions to place a child in distant out-of-authority care, judged to be outside the home authority or a neighbouring authority, because fears were raised about the impact on directors' workload.
As part of its reforms to care planning regulations, the government proposed last June that any decision to place a child "out of authority and at a distance...must be approved by a DCS".
The proposals strengthened current regulations, which state that out-of-authority placement decisions must be approved by a “nominated officer”.
But half of the 131 consultation responses disagreed with the proposal, fearing that directors' lack of capacity to carry out the function could slow down the placement process.
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