1. To delete Proposition 12 and substitute therefor:
“12. To approve the changes set out in paragraphs 6.48 - 6.84 of the Policy Letter, in relation to the legal orders and order thresholds, and, for the purpose of giving effect to those changes, to direct that the Law should be amended to:
a. Provide for separate legal thresholds for referrals to the Children’s Convenor and legal orders made by the Child, Youth and Community Tribunal, and the court;
b. Confer power on the court to make a ‘Child Assessment Order’, including providing for the court having the power to treat the application as one for an Emergency Child Protection Order if the application for the order is not complied with by those with parental responsibility for the child concerned;
c. “To change the threshold test for a Community Parenting Order so that it;
- is suitably adapted to our context;
- is distinct and separate from the criteria for referral to the Convenor or the making of a care requirement;
- it removes the requirement for at least one of the conditions in the current Section 35 to be made out;
- is in line with the 2004 Policy Letter that there is no foreseeable prospect of the child being cared for safely within the family; and
- is consistent with the principles that there is no reasonable prospect of the child’s parents or any other member of the child’s family being able to care for the child within a timescale suitable to the needs and interests of the child. [This will in practice mean that the family assessments will have to be completed prior to the final order being met
d. Make such further amendments to the provisions in respect of CPOs to ensure they are consistent with the revised threshold criteria and the purpose of the order as envisaged in the 2004 States Report;
e. Introduce statutory criteria for the making of an interim Community Parenting Order in line with the amended test for the CPO;
f. Remove the provision that a Parental Responsibility Order is automatically discharged by the making of a CPO; and
g. Remove the provision that an Emergency Child Protection Order is automatically discharged when the Child, Youth and Community Tribunal first sits to consider the child's case.”
