The Care of Children Act - Case Study Example

Children’s Act, 2004 The UK government published the Every Child Matters green paper in response to Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report in September, 2003. This paper gave suggestions for changes in the policies and legislations in England so that children and young people get maximum opportunities and face minimum risks. The paper focused on making services more effective for fulfilling the needs of the children, youngsters and their families. The proposals mentioned in the paper received enormous support from the consultations. The goal of the paper was to ensure results suggested by the children and young people. The Children’s Act was passed keeping in view the purpose of the paper and makes the legislative proposals that are mentioned in the Green Paper effective. This makes the proposals accountable for services to children. The Act also ensures working jointly to protect the interests of children. (Children Act 2004, 2004) The Act The Children’s Act was passed on 15th November, 2004 in the United Kingdom. It provides the platform upon which children’s services are reformed. The aims of this Act are to improve and integrate children’s services, promote early intervention, provide strong leadership and to assemble people from different disciplinary professions to gain positive benefits for children and their families. Duties are delegated to the local authorities to secure the co-operation of partners in creating trusts for children. The Act allows laxity in the formation and maintenance of such trusts. This Act aims to enhance the effective of the local authorities to ensure and promote the well-being of children. The Act has its focus on the needs of the children and includes both universal and specialized services. All services, information and plans are assimilated in ways to ascertain the needs of the young people at early stage and accordingly timely support is provided before the needs become too acute. (The Children Act 2004: Overview, 2004, p.1) The Act has many provisions that directly or indirectly provide effectiveness to agencies that strive to safeguard the needs and interests of children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child acts as the basis for work for children. The Convention Rights have seven major goals which are mention in Section 25 of Children Act 2004. Through these goals the government attempts to ensure that all children and people get proper opportunities in the beginning of their life, get sufficient education and opportunities for learning, enjoy maximum health benefits and are not subjected to exploitation or abuse, get scopes to play and do cultural activities, get respect and attention so that they can make their cultural identity recognised, have proper homes and community to ensure physical and emotional development, and are not subjected to poverty. The Act delegates duties to all the authorities of Wales to promote co-operation for well-being of their local children. The major areas that are being improved are physical and emotional well-being, protection from harm and neglect, education, training and recreation, the children’s contribution to the society, and social and economic well-being. To achieve all these goals, the local authorities need to work in partnership with the local police authority and the chief officer of police, a local probation board, a youth offending team, a local health board, a National Health Service (NHS) trust that provides local services and the National Council for Education and Training for Wales. Section 26 provides regulations by which local authorities have to furnish a plan to design a strategy for performing functions for the benefit of offsprings and the young ones (Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004, pp.28-29) The agency should give a clear written statement of its responsibilities and accountability towards children. It should have uninterrupted flow of service for the welfare of the children. The employees should be given proper training and should be acknowledged of their duties for safeguarding the interests of the children. Effective policies should be developed for sharing information between different agencies and they should co-operate with each other to ensure improvement of children’s welfare. Proper care should be taken to encourage disabled children to express their views. All young children should be given equal opportunity to share their views and opinions according to their age and understanding. (Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004, pp.36, 39). The Act has given many legal duties to the local authorities to perform keeping in view the overall welfare of children, young people and their families. Social Services The local authorities have general duties to ensure safety and welfare of children and young people. They should work together with the parents in a way which is consistent with the child’s religion and culture. Services can be manifold like day care for children, after school care and counseling. They are also obliged to make inquiries if a child is suspected to have been subject to any sort of suffering. The authorities should also assess the capacity of the families to see whether they can maintain their children and in many cases the children are being safeguarded from harm by their parents. They can take help from other agencies like housing or health authorities and while doing so they must be clear about the nature of their request. (Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004, 2004, pp.49-50) Education Services All schools have to perform many legal duties specified by the Act. They have to create and maintain an environment that is safe for the children. They should have arrangements for first aid to meet the basic medical needs of the children. They should protect children from getting bullied. The staff should be maintained with effective disciplinary arrangements. They should identify ways to improve and develop the welfare of children. The curriculums of schools should play a key role in enhancing a child’s spirit, awareness and understanding. Educators should look for indications of possible neglect that a child may be facing at early age and refer them to appropriate agencies. A school should be aware of ways to communicate with a disabled child. All schools must have child protection policies according to the understanding of children. A senior member should take responsibilities of maintaining the policies. Schools should also take care to make the children aware of any function that are harmful to them and should teach them to protect themselves. Any punishments that will cause pain or injury to children are outlawed by the Act. Teachers can use reasonable force to maintain discipline among children. In cases where schools arrange for work places for children, the schools should ensure that the working place has appropriate policies. (Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act, 2004, pp.51-54) Critical Analysis There can be no specific method for garnering data to make policies on early childhood and as a result such policies can turn out to be weak and ineffective. There should be large number of early childhood policy units to conduct regular data surveys to supply important information on children and young people. Such surveys should encompass number of children in each age group, quality of staff of local authorities and schools and their services. If such data are not provided on regular basis to the policy makers and researchers, then they have to take painstaking efforts to retrieve data from variety of sources like household, health, education and social welfare units. Micro-surveys can be done to speed up the process of collecting information on parental fees, children needing special support and on other current issues. A committed and idealistic ministry is needed that all such information is ably collected and published for scrutiny from the public at large. This Act has made the necessary legal changes to ensure data collection in an organised manner so that there are fewer burdens on the local authorities and other organisations of children service. (OECD, 2006, p.181) Children should be allowed to put their views forward regarding any decisions that affect them. Children are citizens and they have social rights. However, children cannot always be self-sufficient. So, their families must maintain an environment in which the children can develop their communication skills and self-determination. The Children’s Act specifically states that the basic purpose of the Act is to recognise and respect certain rights of children and young people. This provision together with other provisions of the Act clearly implies that the major concern of the Act is that children will be listened to in judicial proceedings. This right to participation provided to children is important for them to develop their self-esteem and confidence. Although the children are allowed to play greater role in legal proceedings, there is instruction to limit the ways of obtaining their views. This Act does not allow the children to be present in person during a hearing. This has been a criticised issue. However, presence of a child in court can be a delicate issue and it can be even more delicate when they are supposed to give evidence against their parents. It is imperative that a child is taken away from his parents so that he can talk freely without feeling the pressure of being swayed by the presence of his parents. There can be three ways to obtain the views of the children. The children can talk to lawyers appointed for them or they can be interviewed by the judge or child psychologists can be hired to talk to the children. Each of these techniques can be appropriate depending on the type of the case and must be implemented accordingly so that children can get sufficient opportunity to express their views (Boshier, 2005). Impact on public service I intend to work with children’s welfare organisations to contribute towards the welfare of the country’s children. It is important that the children get proper environment and opportunities for development of their physical and mental health. I believe this Act can have a great impact on public service for children. This Act emphasises on such issues like providing a healthy environment for the safety of the children and helps the children in every possible way to become successful in life. Through this Act, the government works in co-ordination with other social and health organisation to provide a secure childhood to children. This Act has a provision that states that any agency that identifies that a child is being ill-treated either by his parents or other elders in his family, then the agency will notify other agencies that can take proper steps to protect the child. I feel that this particular element of the Act can ensure proper growth of a child without the fear of being ill-treated. This Act also helps in setting up Children’s Trusts that enable co-ordination between different agencies also between teachers and parents. Such trusts can intervene in children’s issue without making their families face intervention from unwanted sources. This Act also helps to set up funds to remove poverty of underprivileged children. I believe these funds can prove to be lot more advantageous since these funds allows children to regularly attend schools and this in turn can avoid crime committed by children. These trusts also ensure that the children get proper opportunities at the beginning of their life. References 1. Boshier, P. (7th July, 2005). The Care of Children Act 2004 - Does it Enhance Childrens Participation and Protection Rights? justice.govt, available at: http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/family-court/publications/speeches-and-papers/archived-speeches/the-care-of-children-act-2004-does-it-enhance-childrens-participation-and-protection-rights (accessed on November 15, 2011) 2. Children Act 2004, (2004), Legislation, available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/notes (accessed on November 15, 2011) 3. OECD. (2006). Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care: Volume 2. OECD Publishing 4. Safeguarding Children: Working Together Under the Children Act 2004 (2004), torfaenfis, available at: http://www.torfaenfis.org.uk/docs%5CSafeguarding%20Children%20under%20Children%20Act%202004.pdf (accessed on November 15, 2011) 5. The Children Act 2004: Overview (2004), surreycc, available at: http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspublications.nsf/f2d920e015d1183d80256c670041a50b/5e17effdd34f9726802572f30055617d/$FILE/CYPP%20Childrens%20Act%20Briefing%20v2.pdf (accessed on November 15, 2011) Janice Nicholson 1860 words (excluding bibliography) Read More