The Cross-border Placement of Children (Requirements, Effect and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2026: Data Protection Impact Assessment

4. Consultation

4.1 Have you consulted with the ICO using the Article 36(4) form?

We followed the 36(4) requirement and the ICO had input into the DPIA.

4.2 Do you need to hold a public consultation and if so, has this taken place? What was the result?

The Scottish Government has undertaken significant engagement on the development of the Regulations with key stakeholders including the Children’s Commissioner Scotland, Clan Childlaw, and the Care Inspectorate. The Scottish Government has also regularly engaged with the UK Government, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive in this regard.

In developing the policy to underpin the Regulations, the Scottish Government has undertaken several evidence gathering activities including:

• In March 2025, two open engagement sessions to present policy proposals.
• In August and September 2024, two stakeholder workshops to understand key challenges with cross-border placements and how the Regulations could help to address them. The outputs of these sessions can be found here.
• In July 2024, the Care Inspectorate published its thematic review of cross-border placements into Scotland. The report found pre-placement planning is key to all cross-border placements.

• In October 2023 the Scottish Government facilitated a stakeholder workshop to review the effectiveness of the 2022 Regulations
• In August 2023 the Scottish Government worked with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) in England to gather information on a sample of cross-border placements where children are subject to voluntary arrangements to understand why these types of placements arise.

The Scottish Government has also undertaken a number of evidence gathering exercises with placing authorities in England, given that is where the majority of placements originate from.

The Scottish Government has engaged with representatives from each of the organisations that the Regulations will require to be notified of all cross-border placements into residential care. This includes:

• the Health Board which provides health services in the area in which the child is to be subject to a placement,
• the registered manager of the service,
• the Chief Social Work Officer of the receiving local authority,
• any person acting for the time being as Chief Education Officer of the receiving local authority,
• the Scottish Ministers,
• the Chief constable of Police Scotland, and
• the Care Inspectorate

There was broad consensus that the current notification requirements under the DoLS Regulations for DoL Order placements were not sufficient and that additional information is required to enable parties to effectively discharge their responsibilities. There was also agreement that this notice needed to be extended to cover other cross-border placements into residential and foster care other than through DoL Orders. The proposals set out in the Regulations are informed by this feedback and ongoing engagement, particularly with the specified Scottish parties.

4.3 Were there any comments/feedback from the public consultation about privacy, information or data protection?

Stakeholders have emphasised the importance of timely information sharing to ensure the best possible care for the child being placed, while also highlighting the need for this to be proportionate. This feedback has been carefully considered in the development of the Regulations to ensure that the information shared is both necessary and proportionate. Additionally, parties who no longer require notification have been removed from the process to ensure that information is only shared with those who need it.