Safe Guarding Children

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As part of this assignment I am going identify certain legislations relating to safeguarding children. I will then be able to explore key principles in the legislations to see how effective they are in protecting children in the United Kingdom. Once I have identified specific legislations that relate to safeguarding children I will be able to investigate and examine how the legal framework works and whether it is successful in protecting children. The first piece of legislation that I have identified is The Children Act 1989. This law was first implemented in October 1991. The Children Act 1989 was introduced in order to improve and simplify the existing laws affecting children; the act moved people away from ‘parental rights’ to the ‘right of the child’ but emphasized the co-operation and sharing of parental responsibilities. The key principles I have identified are ‘the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount’ s.1 (1), ‘parental responsibility for children’ s.1 (1) (2) (3), ‘that the child concerned is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm’ s.4 (31: 2a), and ‘Provisions of services for children in need, their families and others’ s.3 (17). The first key principle I am going to look at is ‘the child’s welfare shall be the courts paramount’. This is also known as the ‘Paramouncy Principal’. If and when an issue arises regarding whether a child is at risk it is up to the courts to decide what is in the child’s best interest. The welfare of the child must come before any other consideration in deciding what actions to take and whether an order should or shouldn’t be made. The next key principle is ‘parental responsibility for children’, this is defined as ‘all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property’. Children Act 1989 s.1 (2) (3). If a
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