Freedom for Children to Grow

Your Local Authority now has a duty to consult stakeholders and partners before implementing any new policies with regard to children and young people. This follows the 2004 Children Act.

In England, "Local authorities" are now part of "children's services" within "children's trusts."

More about Children's Trusts can be found here.

Statutory Guidance on the co-operation arrangements for Children's Trusts and Children's Trust Boards was published in March 2010.

The measures in the Apprenticeships Act 2009 in relation to Children's Trust Boards came into force on April 1st 2010.

"The Act will strengthen Children’s trusts by putting Children’s trust boards on a statutory footing. The Act will extend the existing duty to cooperate to promote children’s well-being to include all maintained schools, academies, SFCs, FE colleges and Jobcentre Plus. It will also place a duty on the members of the Children’s trust board to prepare, publish and monitor a strategic Children and Young People’s Plan for the local area."

Obviously parents and families should be key figures in any discussions about children's education and welfare.

We are currently assessing what local authorities can do for home educating families following the collapse of the Government's proposed new legislation to compel home educators to apply for permission to home educate.

Positive relations between local authorities and the home education community were put in serious jeopardy by the proposed legislation.

We will post further on this page after the General Election and local elections on May 6th.

For more information on the current legal position please read the following pages