Child Care Act, 1991

Voluntary care.

4.—(1) Where it appears to a health board that a child who resides or is found in its area requires care or protection that he is unlikely to receive unless he is taken into its care, it shall be the duty of the health board to take him into its care under this section.

(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of Parts III , IV and VI , nothing in this section shall authorise a health board to take a child into its care against the wishes of a parent having custody of him or of any person acting in loco parentis or to maintain him in its care under this section if that parent or any such person wishes to resume care of him.

(3) Where a health board has taken a child into its care under this section, it shall be the duty of the board—

(a) subject to the provisions of this section, to maintain the child in its care so long as his welfare appears to the board to require it and while he remains a child, and

(b) to have regard to the wishes of a parent having custody of him or of any person acting in loco parentis in the provision of such care.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of Parts III , IV and VI , where a health board takes a child into its care because it appears that he is lost or that a parent having custody of him is missing or that he has been deserted or abandoned, the board shall endeavour to reunite him with that parent where this appears to the board to be in his best interests.