The UK government has introduced several changes to legal protections for children in care as an emergency response to the coronavirus crisis, which, according to this article from the Guardian, children’s rights campaigners and activists are condemning. "Activists described the decision to relax 10 key sets of regulations, developed over decades to protect the most vulnerable children in society, as an 'outrageous assault on safeguards' and warned that children would be harmed."
Although the measures are meant to be temporary - expiring on 25 September - "there are fears that the coronavirus crisis is being used as an excuse to relax children’s social care duties and the expiry date could be revoked."