Commentary on Sections Part 1 .Social Care Chapter 1 .Provision of Social Care Services to Children: Restrictions on Profit Section 11 – Duty to prepare and publish an annual sufficiency plan
49.Section 11 amends the 2014 Act to insert new sections 75A, 75B and 75C.
50.Section 75A requires local authorities to prepare and publish an annual sufficiency plan before the beginning of each financial year. The plan must detail the steps the local authority will take in that year to fulfil its duty under section 75(1). The plan must be in a form prescribed by regulations, and it must be approved by the Welsh Ministers before it is published (the process for this is set out in sections 75B and 75C). It must include, for the financial year to which it relates: the estimated number of children the local authority will be looking after who it will be unable to place under section 81(2); an assessment of the extent to which the available accommodation meets the relevant requirements in section 81A(3) as well as the extent to which that accommodation is within, or near to, the local authority’s area. The plan must also include prescribed information about for-profit and private providers(1) who are likely to be named in applications for approval of supplementary placements, an estimate of the number of such applications that are anticipated and the reasons why that number of applications is likely to be made.
51.Section 75B of the 2014 Act sets out the procedure for the approval of the annual sufficiency plan. Before publishing the plan, a local authority must prepare a draft and submit it to the Welsh Ministers for approval. The first draft must be submitted no later than 4 months before the beginning of the financial year to which it relates, while subsequent drafts must be submitted no later than 2 months before the beginning of the financial year. The Welsh Ministers must notify the local authority of a decision to approve the draft plan.
52.Section 75C of the 2014 Act sets out the procedure to be followed if the Welsh Ministers decide not to approve a draft of an annual sufficiency plan submitted by a local authority under section 75B. In this case, the Welsh Ministers must notify the local authority of their decision and provide the reasons for it. They must also specify a period within which the local authority must submit a further draft of the plan. The local authority must then submit a further draft of the plan, along with a report explaining how the authority has taken into account the reasons provided by the Welsh Ministers. If the Welsh Ministers decide not to approve the further draft, the same procedure applies. If the Welsh Ministers do approve a further draft, they must notify the local authority of that decision.