Commentary on Sections Visiting Section 15: Duty of local authority to ensure visits to looked after children and others
80.Section 15 inserts new section 23ZA into the 1989 Act. This provision requires local authorities to ensure that all looked after children and children who were looked after, but ceased to be looked after as a result of prescribed circumstances (subsection (1)) are visited by a representative of the local authority and that appropriate advice,  support and assistance is made available to them (subsection (2)). It is intended that the power in subsection (1) will be used to place a duty on local authorities to ensure that children who have ceased to be looked after on being taken into custody because they cease to be accommodated by the authority under section 20 are visited and receive advice, assistance and support while they are in custody.
81.The appropriate national authority may, by regulations, specify how the duties are to be discharged (e.g. that the local authority should provide each child and their carers with emergency contact details so that the child can speak to a social worker between visits); and in particular may specify the frequency of the visits; the circumstances in which the visit must take place and the functions of the visitor. The regulations will make it clear that functions of the visitor will include reporting to the local authority, the IRO and the child’s parents on the visit; supervising the placement and ensuring that it continues to meet the child’s needs and that the child’s welfare is safeguarded and protected; and, particularly in the case of a child in custody, assessing the child’s needs for services and working with the Youth Offending Team to plan for the child’s release.
82.Performance of these duties will be subject to any particular statutory requirements that may apply to the circumstances in which, or the place where, the child is actually living, for example in relation to children who are held in custody or who are liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.