Regulation 4 Relevant children

(1)

For the purposes of section 23A(3), children falling within paragraph (2) are an additional category of relevant children.

(2)

Subject to paragraph (3) a child falls within this paragraph if—

(a)

he is aged 16 or 17;

(b)

he is not subject to a care order^f1; and

(c)

at the time when he attained the age of 16 he was detained or in hospital and immediately before he was detained or admitted to hospital he had been looked after by a local authority for a period or periods amounting in all to at least 13 weeks, which began after he reached the age of 14.

(3)

In calculating the period of 13 weeks referred to in paragraph (2)(c), no account is to be taken of any period in which the child was looked after by a local authority in any of a pre-planned series of short-term placements, none of which individually exceeded four weeks, where at the end of each such placement the child returned to the care of his parent, or a person who is not a parent but who has parental responsibility for him.

(4)

For the purposes of this regulation—

(a)

“detained” means detained in a remand centre, a young offenders institution or a secure training centre^f2, or any other institution pursuant to an order of a court; and

(b)

“hospital” means—

(i)

any health service hospital within the meaning of the National Health Service Act 1977^f3; or

(ii)

any mental nursing home being a home in respect of which the particulars of registration are for the time being entered in the separate part of the register kept for the purposes of section 23(5)(b) of the Registered Homes Act 1984^f4.

(5)

Subject to paragraph (7), any child who has lived with a person falling within section 23(4) of the Act^f5 (“a family placement”) for a continuous period of six months or more is not to be a relevant child despite falling within section 23A(2) of the Act.

(6)

Paragraph (5) applies whether the period of six months commences before or after a child ceases to be looked after by a local authority.

(7)

Where a family placement within the meaning of paragraph (5) breaks down and the child ceases to live with the person concerned, the child is to be treated as a relevant child.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: A “care order” is defined in section 105(1) of the Act by reference to section 31(11) of that Act.
f2: For remand centres, young offender institutions and secure training centres, see section 43(1) of the Prison Act 1952 (c. 52) as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48) section 11, Criminal Justice Act 1988 (c. 33), section 170 and paragraph 11 and 12 of Schedule 15, and Schedule 16, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c. 33), section 18(3), the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c. 37), paragraph 6 of Schedule 8, and the Powers of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c. 6) section 165(1) and paragraph 5(1) and (2) of Schedule 9. The provisions relating to remand centres will be repealed by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (c. 43) sections 59 and 75 and Schedule 8, on a date to be appointed.
f3: 1977 c. 49.
f4: 1984 c. 23.
f5: A person falls within section 23(4) if he is a parent of the child, a person who is not a parent but who has parental responsibility for him, or where the child is in care and there was a residence order in force with respect to him immediately before the care order was made, a person in whose favour the residence order was made.