Foster Children Act 1980

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
  • Subject to section 2 below, a child is a foster child for the purpose of this Act if he is below the upper limit of the compulsory school age and his care and maintenance are undertaken by a person who is not a relative, guardian or custodian of his.
  • (1) A child is not a foster child while he is in the care of a local authority or a voluntary organisation or is boarded out by a local authority or a local educational authority.in premises in which any parent, adult relative or guardian of his is for the time being residing;in any voluntary home within the meaning of Part VI of the in any school within the meaning of the in any hospital, or in any nursing home registered or exempted from registration under the in any home or institution not specified in this subsection or subsection (5) below but maintained by a public or local authority.who is not a regular foster parent and at that time does not intend to, and does not in fact, undertake his care and maintenance for a continuous period of more than 27 days; orwho is a regular foster parent but at that time does not intend to, and does not in fact, undertake his care and maintenance for a continuous period of more than six days.In this subsection “regular foster parent” means a person who—during the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date on which he begins to undertake the care and maintenance of the child in question, andotherwise than as a relative or guardian,(4) A child is not a foster child while he is in the care of any person in compliance with a supervision order within the meaning of the (5) A child is not a foster child while he is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under the Mental Health Act 1959, or is resident in a residential home for mentally disordered persons within the meaning of the while he is placed in the care and possession of a person who proposes to adopt him under arrangements made by an adoption agency within the meaning of section 1 of the while he is a protected child within the meaning of Part III of the that the children are visited by officers of the authority in accordance with regulations made under subsection (2) below; andthat such advice is given as to the care and maintenance of the children as appears to be needed.(2) The Secretary of State may make regulations requiring foster children in a local authority’s area to be visited by an officer of the local authority on specified occasions or within specified periods of time.(3) Until such time as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument appoint, subsection (1) above shall have effect with the substitution for paragraph (a) of the following paragraph—
    • (a) that, so far as appears to the authority to be appropriate, the children are visited from time to time by officers of the authority; and
    that, so far as appears to the authority to be appropriate, the children are visited from time to time by officers of the authority; and(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for requiring parents whose children are, or are going to be, maintained as foster children to give to the local authority for the area where the children are, or are going to be, living as foster children such information about the fostering as may be specified in the regulations.(2) Regulations under this section may include such incidental and supplementary provisions as the Secretary of State thinks fit.(1) A person who proposes to maintain as a foster child a child not already in his care shall give written notice thereof to the local authority in whose area the premises in which the child is to be kept are situated, not less than two weeks and not more than four weeks before he receives the child, unless he receives him in an emergency.whom he received in an emergency, orwho became a foster child while in his care,the date on which it is intended that the child should be received or (as the case may be) on which the child was in fact received or became a foster child, andthe premises in which the child is to be or is being kept.

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