The Children’s Act – How does it promote anti discriminatory practice?
The Act, which brings together all existing child protection legislation and extends protection from unfair treatment, explicitly excludes children and young people from legal protection from unfair discrimination. The Children Act 1989 recognised that the welfare of the child is paramount and set out an overarching system for safeguarding children and the roles different agencies play. It introduced the concept of parental responsibility rather than parental rights. A key principle is that Local Authorities have a duty to provide services for children and their families and all children and young people should have access to the same range of services.
In 2003, the Government published a green paper called Every Child Matters. This was published alongside the formal response to the report into the death of Victoria Climbié.
There was a wide consultation with people working in children's services, and with parents, children and young people. Following the consultation, the Government published Every Child Matters: the Next Steps, and passed the Children Act 2004, providing the legislative spine for developing more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and families under the five Every Child Matters outcomes
• Be healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Make a positive contribution
• Achieve economic well-being

The stay safe point underneath the every child matters outcomes has a direct implication to the working of anti-discrimination, reading “safe from bullying and discrimination”. This helps to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sexuality, religion, race, culture, age and ethnicity.

The legislation creates joint in-service training and makes it widely available to social workers, teachers, nurses and other