Children's Homes Act 1982
| Year | 1982 |
Children's Homes Act 1982
1982 CHAPTER 20
An Act to provide for the registration, inspection and conduct of certain homes and other institutions for the accommodation of children in the care of local authorities; and for connected purposes.
[28th June 1982]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Children's homes to which the Act applies.
(1) For the purposes of this Act a children's home is a home or other institution providing accommodation and maintenance wholly or mainly for children, other than an institution excluded by subsection (2) below.
(2) The institutions excluded by this subsection are—
(a ) community homes provided under section 32 of the Child Care Act 1980 ;
(b ) voluntary homes as defined by section 56 of that Act;
(c ) homes registered under the Nursing Homes Act 1975 or the Residential Homes Act 1980 ;
(d ) any health service hospital within the meaning of the National Health Service Act 1977 and any accommodation provided by a local authority and used as a hospital by or on behalf of the Secretary of State;
(e ) homes and other premises managed by a government department or provided by a local authority; and
(f ) subject to subsection (3) below, any school within the meaning of the Education Act 1944 .
(3) An independent school within the meaning of that Act is not excluded by subsection (2) above (and is accordingly a children's home for the purposes of this Act) if the school provides accommodation for fifty children or less and is not for the time being approved by the Secretary of State under section 11(3)(a ) of the Education Act 1981 .
2 Children in care not to be accommodated in unregistered children's homes.
(1) A local authority shall not place a child in their care in a children's home, or allow such a child to remain in a children's home, unless it is a home for the time being registered under this Act (in this Act referred to as a ‘registered home’).
(2) Any person who carries on a children's home which is not a registered home but in which are accommodated one or more children in the care of a local authority shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 1,000.
3 Registration of children's homes.
(1) An application for the registration of a children's home under this Act shall be made by the person carrying on, or intending to carry on, the home and shall be made to the local authority for the area in which the home is or is to be situated.
(2) An application for registration shall be made in the prescribed manner and shall be accompanied by—
(a ) such particulars as may be prescribed; and
(b ) such reasonable fee as the local authority may determine.
(3) If a local authority are satisfied that a children's home in respect of which an application has been made in accordance with this section complies or (as the case may be) will comply—
(a ) with such requirements as may be prescribed, and
(b ) with such other requirements (if any) as appear to the authority to be appropriate,
the authority shall grant the application, either unconditionally or subject to conditions imposed under section 4 below, and shall give to the applicant notice that the home has been registered by the authority under this Act as from such date as may be specified in the notice.
(4) If the local authority are not satisfied as mentioned in subsection (3) above, they shall refuse the application, and shall give to the applicant notice of their refusal of the application and of the grounds on which they have refused it.
(5) For the purposes of this Act an application under this section which has not been granted or refused by a local authority within the period of twelve months beginning with the date when the application is served on them shall be deemed to have been refused by them, and the applicant shall be deemed to have been notified of their refusal at the end of that period.
(6) Where an application for the registration of a children's home is made to a local authority in accordance with this section, the home shall, as from the date when the application is served on the authority, be treated for the purposes of this Act as if it were registered thereunder—
(a ) until the home becomes registered under subsection (3) above, or
(b ) if the authority refuse the application, until the expiry of a period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date when the applicant is notified of their refusal.
(7) Where a school to which section 1(3) above applies is registered under subsection (3) above it shall not cease to be a children's home registered under this Act by reason only of a subsequent change in the number of children for whom it provides accommodation.
(8) Where an application for the registration of a home is refused, no further application for the registration of the home may be made under this section within the period of six months beginning with the date when the applicant is notified of the refusal.
4 Conditions imposed on registration.
(1) A local authority may grant an application for the registration of a children's home subject to such conditions relating to the conduct of the home as they think fit.
(2) Where a local authority grant an application subject to conditions they shall, at the time of giving notice to the applicant of the registration of the home, also give notice of those conditions; but the conditions shall not take effect before the expiry of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date on which the applicant is so notified.
(3) If any condition imposed under this section is not complied with, the person carrying on the home shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 500.
5 Annual review of registration.
(1) A local authority which have registered a children's home (in this Act referred to, in relation to the home, as ‘the responsible authority’) shall at the end of the period of twelve months beginning with the date of registration, and annually thereafter, review the registration of the home for the purpose of determining whether the registration should continue in force or be cancelled under section 6(2) below.
(2) If on any such annual review the responsible authority are satisfied that a home is being carried on in accordance with the relevant requirements they shall determine that, subject to subsection (3) below, the registration of the home should continue in force.
(3) The responsible authority shall give to the person carrying on the home notice of their determination under subsection (2) above, and the notice shall require him to pay to the authority in respect of the carrying out of the annual review in question such reasonable fee as the authority may determine; and it shall be a condition of the home's continued registration that the fee is so paid before the expiry of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date on which the notice is received by the person carrying on the home.
(4) In this section ‘the relevant requirements’ means any requirements of this Act and of any regulations made under section 8 below, and any conditions imposed under section 4 above.
6 Cancellation of registration.
(1) The person carrying on a registered home may at any time make an application, in such manner and including such particulars as may be prescribed, for the cancellation by the responsible authority of the registration of the home; and, if the authority are satisfied either—
(a ) that no child in the care of a local authority is for the time being accommodated in the home, or
(b ) in the case of a school registered by virtue of section 1(3) above, that it is no longer a school to which that provision applies,
the authority shall give to the person carrying on the home notice that the registration of the home has been cancelled by the authority as from the date of the notice.
(2) If on any annual review under section 5 above, or at any other time, it appears to the responsible authority that a registered home is being carried on otherwise than in accordance with the relevant requirements, they may determine that the registration of the home should be cancelled.
(3) The responsible authority may at any time determine that the registration of a home should be...
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