While at university I developed knowledge of the Children Act 1989 and 2004 and how to apply them in practice along-side other legislation required children and family social worker. The Children Act 1989 allocates duties to local authorities, courts, parents and other agencies to ensure that children's welfare is paramount and are safeguarded. This legislation supports children being brought up by their families and making provisions for families that are experiencing challenges and when families cannot co-operate with statutory bodies.
The Children Act 1989 introduced numerous principles which include: the welfare of the children (paramountcy principle), parental responsibility, provisions of services for children in need, duty to investigate, police powers, emergency protection powers, care orders. This legislation gave the
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rights to children to be protected from abuse, exploitation and the right to safeguard their welfare. The Children Act 2004 was introduced to strengthen the Children Act 1989 after the findings of the Lord Laming's report into the death Vitoria Climbié.
The Laming enquire concluded that legislation and guidance in the UK required improvements. Initially, introduced the green paper Every Child Matter which identified five outcomes for children which are: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. The Lord Laming report also lead to the introduction of the Children Act 2004.
The Children Act 2004 stats that the welfare of children and young people are paramount in all considerations of safeguarding which is everyone's responsibility. Safeguarding can only be achieved by improving working together to deliver more integrated services for children and young people which included health, education and development, safety and economic circumstances. The legislation is aimed at improving children and young people live for services to work in partnership. This targets universal services that children access and specialist services that are accessed by those that have additional
needs. While carrying out Children and Family assessments I have used the Children Act 1989/2004, alongside the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (2000) and the London Child Protection Procedures (2010) which identify if the child is in need (s17) or suffering significant harm or likely to suffer significate harm (s47). This legislation and guidance have ensured that my assessments remain child focused while developing an understanding of the child's world. I used assessment to develop more insight on the worries to develop a safety plan for children. When completing Children and Family assessment I ensure that the family were aware of the process and the alternative outcomes of our involvement using a danger statement. I would ask questions about the worries and in some cases challenges families on the concerns that have been raised as part of the assessment process. I gathered correct information on the family from using direct work with the children, conversations with parents and information from professionals. Using this information, I developed genograms to understanding the families system and chronology to record events that have taken place. Families were also provided with a complaints procedure contact details if they felt they wanted to report issues they experiences while I was working with the family. Additionally, other related legislation that I have used on while working in children services Adoption and Children Act 2002. This legislation, the principles that are set in the Children Act 1989/2004 are to be applied. The Leaving Care Act 2000 supports that transitioned for young people that are looked after by the local authority to leaving the care system making provisions for this important and challenging transition period such as: creating a pathway plan when they are 16 mapping out a route for interdependence, each young person should have a personal advisor that coordinates the provisions of support and assists in education, training or employment; an effective financial support plan to be carried out by the local authority to ensure that the young person receive comprehensive financial support; and continuing to assessing for young people aged between 18-21 with education, and employment which will continue until agreed up to the age of 25.
Parton, N., Thorpe, D. and Wattam, C. (1997) Child Protection Risk and Moral Order, London: Macmillan
...l now be given the power to interfere in cases where parents have failed in their duties towards the child. This is extremely important as it allows the State to intervene in cases where there has been a failure, which was difficult to do in the past. This new role of protecting children's rights is favourable as it will, hopefully, prevent any failure by the State to children in unacceptable circumstances/situation.
In this essay, the researcher will explore what a ‘looked after child’ is and the current system for LAC in the UK. This includes legislation, Policy and, statistics on LAC in the UK. As well as, this essay will include why children looked after by the local authority, why do they end up with the local authority, the impact of child abuse and neglect on children, young people and their families, and lastly other issues/perceptions surrounded around children and young people who are ‘looked after’.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was established because an American boy was abducted form a Florida shopping mall and was later found murdered. The act was signed into law by George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. This act is established to protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime to prevent child abuse and child pornography to promote internet safety. This act is also known as the sex offender registration and notification act. It was established with the intention to strengthen laws related to child sexual predators. This law was instructed for each state and/or territory to apply criteria’s for posting offenders data on the internet.
The legislation regarding safeguarding and chid protection ensures that all the children are safe, secure and protected from any kind of potential harm which may affect their health or development.
Within the care system there are two different routes in to care and these are voluntary care and compulsory care. Voluntary care is when the parent agrees for their child to be placed in to the care system and this care section is under section 76 of the social services and wellbeing act of 2014. Then there is compulsory care and this is when the imposition of a care order is put in place by the authorities. This is under section 31 of the social services and wellbeing act of 2014.
Children’s Social Care work with parents and other agencies to assess the stages of child protection procedures, record information and make decisions on taking further action. The police work closely with this agency to act on decisions made such as removing a child or the person responsible for the abuse while gathering evidence and carrying out investigations regarding the matter. Health professionals have a duty to report suspected non-accidental injuries to Children’s Social Care and examine children to give evidence of abuse. The Children Act 2004 requires every local area to have a Local Safeguarding Children Board to oversee the work of agencies involved in child protection, place policies and procedures for people who work with children and conduct serious case reviews when children die as a result of abuse. The NSPCC is the only charitable organisation that has the statutory power to take action when children are at risk of abuse. They provide services to support families and children and two helplines for children in danger and adults who are concerned for a child’s safety. They also raise awareness of abuse, share their expertise with other professionals and work to influence the law and social policy protect children more efficiently. There are also acts in place to protect children such as the Children Act 1989, the United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child 1989, the Education Act 2002 and the Children Act 2004. Legal framework from such acts are provided for Every Child Matters which requires early years practitioners to demonstrate that they provide activities that help children protect themselves. This may be through books and group talks known as “Stranger
When a court is dealing with proceedings relating to a child, section 1 of the Children Act 1989 (CA 1989) governs that the court’s paramount consideration shall lie with the child’s welfare. The term paramount was explained by Lord Macdermott in J v C which means ‘that the child’s welfare is to be treated as the top item in a list of items relevant to the matter of question’. His Lordship went on to explain that when all the relevant facts and circumstances are taken into account and weighed, the outcome chosen by the court is based on the interests of the relevant child. Therefore any other party’s interest is only considered as far as it contributes to promote the child’s best interest.
Throughout history, the government has been in charge of creating and regulating different types of laws. Many of the laws have been created to protect those who reside in that country and therefore are expected to be followed. However, not everyone believes that they should follow the law and in return decide to either ignore them or rebel against them. When members of society violate the simple law that has been set in place to protect those who do not possess the capability to protect themselves, it becomes a dangerous and horrendous tragedy. One of the most horrific laws that people violate is that of child abuse and neglect.
This essay will first address the statute used and interpretation of the threshold test by the courts, and then focus on cases involving vulnerable children to assess whether the statute in The Children Act 1989 is sufficient in protecting these children from harm. I will look at the argument in favour of the current approach taken by the courts, and the counter-argument in favour of changing the current approach. The arguments are delicately balanced and the law is always developing, so it will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court resolves this issue in future.
LSCB, (2013), SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE ADULTS POLICY, (www.safechildren-cios.co.uk), [Assessed 1 November 2013].
In a child protection work, formal knowledge is not only an understanding of the law, official regulations, and ways of practice, but also a theoretical view of 'child development, family dynamics and methods of intervention' (Munro, 20...
If the local authority establishes that the child is a child in need or at risk of harm, it has a duty under section 47 of the Children Act (1989) to make a care plan or child protection plan to provide support which involves adequate supervision and checks to ensure that the child is no longer at risk. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) promotes empowerment for children as they can exercise their right to express their views and be heard and their best interest would be at the centre of the intervention and social workers need to ensure that decisions made are not affected by the influence from family or professionals they work with (Lee & Hudson,
Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005) Making Every Child Matter, Commission for Social Care Inspection
The local authority has to organize for the parents with children having such needs are given information and advice about matters of those needs. By making these arrangements, the local authority has to have regard to guidance provided for Wales by its national assembly and England’s Secretary of State. The local authority has to take steps considered necessary for making the service provisions known to parents of children around the area, proprietors and head teachers of schools around the area and any other person that is