Part 5: Children’s Hearings: Duty to Consider Need for Further Reports
230.Sections 67 amends sections 91, 119 and 138 of the 2011 Act. All of these sections deal with the powers of children’s hearings. In each case, the power includes power, if the hearing considers it appropriate to do so, to defer making the decision involved in each case to a subsequent hearing. The new provision inserted into each of these sections provides that, in deciding whether to defer making the decision to a subsequent hearing, the hearing must consider whether to require the Principal Reporter to obtain any further reports which the hearing consider relevant to the decisions which would be made at the subsequent hearing. This ensures that the question of whether any further information is required is specifically considered by the hearing in deciding whether it is appropriate to defer a decision to a subsequent hearing.