Remote safeguarding for children: risks of invisibility in the ‘new normal’

Jacqueline L Thomas QC Spire Barristers

This article looks at the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 introduced by Government on 24 April 2020 and the impact that the regulations have on the provision of appropriate safeguarding for children. The Regulations have been controversial as a result both of their content and the speed at which they were introduced. They are currently the subject of an application for judicial review by interested parties. This article examines the risks posed to children’s wellbeing as a result of the Government restrictions on movement during the Covid19 pandemic and whether that is likely to be exacerbated by the introduction and implementation of the Regulations. The Regulations are of far reaching consequence and have the potential to become a longer term situation. Individual aspects of the regulations are set out to describe the changes that they bring into effect and various specific regulations are examined in order to critically evaluate whether or not they risk causing lasting damage to our child protection regime which has been carefully developed over a number of years.

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