Child Protection Guidance 2021

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 Part 1: The context for child protection 11 Version 1.0 September 2021 1.26 Parental rights are necessary to allow a parent to fulfil their responsibilities, which include looking after their child’s health, development and welfare, providing guidance to their child, maintaining regular contact with their child if they do not live with them, and acting as their child’s legal representative. In order to fulfil these responsibilities, parental rights include the right to have their child live with them and to decide how their child is brought up. Parents continue to hold parental rights for a child unless and until these are removed. If this happens, it must be clear who does hold parental rights and responsibilities. 1.27 A ‘carer’ is someone other than a parent who is looking after a child. A carer may be a ‘relevant person’ within the children’s hearing system. ‘Relevant persons’ have extensive rights within the children’s hearing system, including the right to attend children’s hearings, receive documents relating to hearings and appeal decisions taken within those proceedings. Relevant persons are 1) parents, whether or not they have parental rights and responsibilities (unless their parental rights and responsibilities have all been removed), 2) other persons, not parents, who have parental rights and responsibilities for a child, and 3) any person who has been deemed to be a relevant person by a children’s hearing or pre- hearing panel on the basis that the person has, or has recently had, significant involvement in the upbringing of the child (section 200 and section 81(3) in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011). 1.28 A ‘kinship carer’ is a carer for a child looked after by the local authority, where the child is placed with the kinship carer in accordance with Regulation 10 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (‘the 2009 Regulations’). In order to be approved as a kinship carer, the carer must be related to the child or a person who is known to the child and with whom the child has a pre-existing relationship (‘related’ means related to the child either by blood, marriage or civil partnership). Regulation 10 of the 2009 Regulations provides that a local authority may make a decision to approve a kinship carer as a suitable carer for a child who is looked after by that authority under the terms of section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. 1.29 Before making such a decision, the authority must, so far as reasonably practicable, obtain and record in writing the information specified in Schedule 3 of the 2009 Regulations and, taking into account that information, carry out an assessment of that person’s suitability to care for the child. Other duties placed on local authorities by the 2009 Regulations are intended to ensure placements are safe, in the child’s best interests, and subject to regular review. 1.30 Kinship care placements of looked after children made under the 2009 Regulations are often referred to as formal kinship care. Informal kinship care refers to care arrangements made by parents or those with parental responsibilities with close relatives or, in the case of orphaned or abandoned children, by those relatives providing care. A child cared for by informal kinship carers is not ‘looked after’. The carer in such circumstances is not a public foster carer. Foster carer means a person approved by a local authority as a suitable carer for the child. A decision to approve a person as a foster carer must be made in accordance with regulation 22 of the 2009 Regulations. A kinship carer or foster carer may or may not have parental rights and responsibilities. 1.31 Foster carers and kinship carers require support and partnership in the care and protection of the children placed with them. This may include help managing potential risks posed by parents or other family members. Kinship carers may have ambivalent feelings about the circumstances that have resulted in them having to care for a child or young person and parents may find it difficult to accept or respect the carer’s role. Working together in this context is likely to require a focus on the child’s needs and experience, sensitivity,

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