The Act Detailed provisions Promotion of contact between looked after children and siblings
56.Section 13 amends section 17 of the 1995 Act to provide that the local authority must take such steps to promote personal relations and direct contact between a looked after child and their siblings, as appear to the local authority to be appropriate, having regard to the local authority’s duty to promote the welfare of the child.
57.This replicates the duty that local authorities have to promote personal relations and contact between a looked after child and those with parental responsibilities and rights. The duty applies not only to siblings , but also to any other person with whom the child has lived and with whom the child has an ongoing relationship with the character of a relationship between siblings. Two people are defined as siblings if they have at least one parent in common. This could be a biological parent or a parent by operation of adoption law or by virtue of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.
58.This section also amends section 17(3) of the 1995 Act. The effect is that, before making any decision with respect to a child whom they are looking after, or proposing to look after, a local authority shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, ascertain the views of siblings and any other person with whom the child has lived and with whom the child has an ongoing relationship with the character of a relationship between siblings.