Select committee: Human Rights (Joint Committee)
Recommendation 22
2nd Report - Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System in England
Published 27 Aug 2026
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Human Rights (Joint Committee) Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System in England All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the changes introduced by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 to require local authorities to allow reasonable contact between children in care and their siblings but note that such a flexible 101 standard could be interpreted narrowly by local authorities with limited resources. The government must work with local authorities to ensure this does not happen, by, for example, making available guidance setting out the expected focus on the promotion of close relationships. (Recommendation, Paragraph 118)
From: Human Rights (Joint Committee), 2nd Report - Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System in England (HC 161), 27 August 2026
Government response
No government response linked yet: deadline 27 October 2026, 5 days ago.