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

Step one – Develop a clear understanding of your objectives

Policy Objective

Context

In this assessment, ‘cross-border placements’ are used to describe temporary placements of children into residential or foster care in Scotland from another part of the UK. Children placed into Scotland on cross-border placements remain the responsibility of the placing local authority. For most cross-border placements coming to Scotland, Scottish parties know very little about those children or their circumstances. In many cases, Scottish partners do not know that children have been placed and often find out through crisis interventions. Cross-border placements into residential care and foster care in Scotland are primarily due to a critical lack of provision elsewhere in the UK, particularly in England.

What are the objectives of the policy, strategy or service?

The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 includes provision to allow the Scottish Ministers to further regulate cross-border placements of children from England, Wales and Northern Ireland into Scotland, which should only ever occur in exceptional circumstances. The Cross-border Placement of Children (Requirements, Effect and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (“the Regulations”) provide for the legal effect in Scots law of court orders or arrangements underpinning placements from elsewhere in the UK and set out conditions to be met in respect of temporary placements into residential and foster care.

The overarching aim of the Regulations is to provide a robust legal framework in respect of cross-border placements, thereby ensuring that the welfare of children placed in Scotland is safeguarded and promoted, and that their rights are upheld.

Cross-border placements into Scotland should only occur in exceptional circumstances where the placement is in the best interests of the individual child. The Scottish Government’s intention through the Regulations, is to ensure that placements into residential and foster care in Scotland are appropriately considered and assessed, and that a clear regulatory framework applies to these placements. This, in turn, will ensure that the rights and wellbeing of children who come to Scotland through cross-border placements are safeguarded and promoted.

The Regulations set out conditions to be met for temporary placements and also provide a route for the “conversion” of certain non-Scottish orders into compulsory supervision orders (CSOs), where the host local authority in Scotland agrees for this to happen.

Do you need to consult?

Significant engagement has been undertaken with key partners on the development of the Regulations. This included bilateral engagements as well as wider stakeholder events. A formal public, consultation took place during the development of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024.

How are islands identified for the purpose of the policy, strategy or service?

Islands have been identified within the following local authority areas: Argyll and Bute Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highland Council, North Ayrshire Council, Orkney Islands Council, and Shetland Islands Council.

Data provided by the Care Inspectorate was used to identify any residential children’s homes located on an island within these local authority areas.

What are the intended impacts/outcomes and how do these potentially differ in the islands?

We intend to ensure the wellbeing of children placed cross-border into Scotland, including that relevant support is in place for them. The Regulations make clear that the responsibility for the placed child remains with the local authority which places them in Scotland in the context of temporary placements, which means that Scottish local authorities can recover costs associated with them. This outcome should not differ in the islands.

There are currently no known instances of cross-border placements into residential care or foster care on Scottish islands

Is the policy, strategy or service new?

This is a new policy.

Background

Cross-border placements occur when children are subject to an order or arrangement in another part of the UK and are placed into residential or foster care in Scotland. To date, the majority of known cross-border placements into residential care in Scotland have been made into privately operated services. We are only aware of eight placements into third sector residential services and are not aware of any placements into local authority run services.

There is limited data on cross-border foster placements.