Independent Reviewing Officers Guidance Wales: Adoption and Children Act 2002 and The Review of Children’s Cases (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2004.

The IRO could make an important contribution to ensuring that the local authority had a consistent approach towards the care of children for whom it was corporately responsible. The IRO could offer a safeguard to prevent any "drift" in planning the care for looked after children and ensure that the local authority’s efforts in reviewing children’s cases were focused on meeting the needs of the children. The IRO could monitor the activity of the local authority as a corporate parent in ensuring that appropriate actions were taken to meet the child’s needs.

The role of the IRO could ensure that plans for looked after children were timely, effective and sensitive to their individual needs. The role also had the potential to make a major contribution to assuring the quality of the services for looked after children in any local authority