Will the Welsh Government commit to notifying the relevant Minister of every death of a care-experienced person, as happens in England, and if not, why does Wales have a weaker oversight than England on this?
Section 125 of the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014 places a duty on the local authority to notify Welsh Ministers of the death of a child who is looked after.
The duty to notify the Secretary of State and Ofsted where a care leaver has died was introduced in 2023 in England and sits within statutory guidance rather than primary legislation. Local authorities in England should notify the Secretary of State of the death of a care leaver whereas they must notify the Secretary of State of the death of a looked after child.
Local authorities are required to keep in touch with all care leavers up the point they reach age 21, and to make their best efforts to contact all care leavers aged 21 to 24 annually to remind them they remain eligible for support. However, if a young person chooses not to take up support after the age of 21 the local authority may no longer be aware of a care leaver’s whereabouts or circumstances and therefore their death; as a result the Secretary of State is only notified of known deaths of care leavers.
We do not have an equivalent expectation of local authorities in relation to notification of the death of a care leaver in Wales; however this does not preclude local authorities from collecting this information locally.