Part 4: Miscellaneous and General Section 67: Children’s needs arising from community care needs of their parents
133.Section 67 imposes a duty on local authorities, when assessing the needs of adults for community care services, to consider also the needs of any children for whom the adult has caring responsibilities and consider whether the impact of the adults’ needs on their ability to parent indicate that the child in turn is a “child in need” in the terms of section 17 of the 1989 Act.
134.Having considered whether or not the child does appear to be a child in need, the local authority must decide whether to make the child the subject of an assessment under section 17 of the 1989 Act and then whether or not to provide any services.
135.Subsection (4) then requires the local authority to take account of the consideration given to the child’s needs in deciding what are the needs of the parent are under section 47(1)(b) of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990.