The Act Detailed provisions Duty to consider contact when making etc. compulsory supervision order
59.Section 14 of the Act inserts into the 2011 Act a requirement that the decision-maker, when deciding whether to include a direction regulating contact between the child and a person or class of person, must in particular consider the relationships between the child and their siblings and between the child and their relevant persons and decide if a relationship should be supported by a legal measure of contact implemented by the relevant authority (usually the local authority where the child is from). Relevant persons are parents of a child and anyone that a children’s hearing decides is a ‘deemed relevant person’ due to having a significant involvement in the upbringing of the child. Siblings is given an extended meaning to include those who share one or both parents with the child (whether biologically or by virtue of adoption or the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008)and those with whom the child shares a sibling-like relationship.