Health and well-being of looked-after children

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• Author:Department for Education
• Published:March 2015
• Country:

Promoting the health and well-being of looked-after children statutory guidance for local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and NHS England

About the guidance

This is joint statutory guidance from the Department for Education and the Department of Health. It is for local authorities, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England and applies to England only.

This guidance is issued to local authorities, CCGs and NHS England under sections 10 and 11 of the Children Act 2004 and they must have regard to it when exercising their functions.

It is also issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. This requires local authorities in exercising their social services functions to act under the general guidance of the Secretary of State. Local authorities must comply with this guidance unless there are exceptional reasons that justify a departure.

This guidance replaces the Statutory Guidance on Promoting the Health and Well-being of Looked After Children, which was issued in November 2009 to local authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities. The guidance published in 2009 has been updated to reflect reforms to the National Health Service following the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It also takes account of other reforms such as changes to the special educational needs legislative framework and the cross-Government mental health strategy, which emphasises that mental health is as important as physical health.

This guidance should be read in conjunction with:

• The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review
• The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 3: Transition to Adulthood
• The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services
• Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the Quality Standards
• Statutory Guidance on Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies
• Who Pays? Determining responsibility for payments to providers
• National Tariff Payment System

Please find the full guide to Promoting the health and well-being of looked-after children Statutory guidance for local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and NHS England in the link on the right-hand side of this page.