Impact Legislation in Child Care Impact Legislation in Child Care

The children’s act 1989 was the first part of legislation to set out the duty of councils in regard to child protection procedures. The aim of the children’s act 1989 was to provide reforms in the law relating to children, making provision for the local authority’s Social services departments and others to act together providing services and support for children, young people and their families. The introduction of the Children’s Act was a landmark and a significant turning point for children’s social work. The result was a move from concern with child welfare to child protection and a frequently authoritarian intervention. The act was introduced in 1989 by the Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government just a year before of her being replaced by John Major as Prime Minister of the UK. With the change in Government when The Labour Party came into power with Tony Blair as the new Prime Minister was the beginning of a shift in social work as Labour’s administrations gave continuity to the Thatcher’s ideologies in many aspects. Therefore, with a string of high profile cases of child abuse in those years, the Labour Government in 2003 published “Every Child Matters” with the aim to address the immediate concerns identified in both reports, and a range of circumstances that happened in families and impacted on the lives of children and young people in the UK. The proposal of the White Paper was with five outcomes children’s services needed to provide in order for children to achieve: “being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and economic well-being”. In 2004 the Every Child Matters changed to Children Act 2004 which involved changes to the traditional social services bringing together all the services for children and young people, into