Commentary on Sections Part 6 - Looked after and Accommodated Children Section 83 - Care and support plans
261.Section 83 requires that any care and support plan (prepared under section 54) for a child looked after by a local authority must be reviewed and maintained under this section. The local authority must carry out a new assessment and revise the plan if it believes the circumstances of the child have changed in such a way as to affect the existing plan.
262.If the child does not have a care and support plan when he or she first becomes looked after, the authority must arrange for one to be prepared. The child to whom the plan relates, together with anyone with parental responsibility for that child, must be involved in the preparation, review or revision of a plan.
263.The Welsh Ministers must make regulations (in accordance with subsection (5)) about the preparation, content, review and revision of the plans; to set out the detail of those persons who may request a review of the plan and the circumstances in which a local authority may and may not, refuse such a request.
264.If other plans are being prepared for the child by other bodies, those plans may be included with the care and support plan. Subsection (9) allows any part of a care and support plan maintained under this section to be treated as a plan prepared under section 31A of the Children Act 1989 (care plans relating to applications for care orders) for the purposes of that Act.