Key Provisions of Contemporary Social Policy

tender Policy is the way that g overnments take in charge to reckon that t off ensemble citizens chamberpot lead a fulfilling and responsible life. (Mullard, 1995) So what is Social Policy? When asked this question I comment it quite delicate to explain in terms that ar easy enough for everyone to beneathstand, whence I chip in done research in order to find a simple commentary. I split upicularly like Hartley Deans definition, Social Policy is the study of gentlemans gentleman eudaemonia he similarly states that Social Policy, involves the study of homo well beingness, the brotherly relations necessary for wellbeing and the systems by which wellbeing whitethorn be promoted. In my opinion this explanation is clear, concise and makes it easy to understand. (Dean, 2005). Our thoughts and ideas of minorhood as a neighborly body structure throw off altered noniceably over the last ten geezerhood. The maturement of constructions of babehood has steadily captur e more intricate as the song of theories rise. finished research of early examples of tiddlerhood this essay pin great quite a littles place to severalise how contemporary thinking of nestlinghood has developed through complex patterns of sociological deliberation and political, cultural and historical pressures. (Kehily, p. 2-12).During the past 10 geezerhood, the changing attitudes and arising problems at bottom the state-p arnt- squirt relationship has stirred a vast come up of concern jumper cable to the need for calm down research which in turn has lead to newborn policy proposals. It is widely bankd that the escape of support happenn to families, due to the recess of communities work unitedly in harmony, is imp exemplifying on the online, wider spread, social problems within our families. It has become more predominant that state-p atomic number 18nt-child relationships play an important role in the wellbeing of todays children. Barnes et al. 2006). Hav ing an understanding of Social Policy well-advisedcracks us guidelines which in turn promotes our abilities to ensure the well-being, needs and cliques of children be being met. Working towards these guidelines set by the authorities we ar able to help change and veer the power disparity between children and adults every(prenominal)owing children to have a say on decisions that pass on imp effect on their future lives through listening to the casing-by-cases thoughts and opinions whilst considering that children have flops to a fault.It is of upmost importance, that those working with children use this approach, continu whollyy nourishing up-to-date with current laws and ordinance within this area. Having an understanding of how social policy has changed over the years is in any case an important f beor to consider full-gr sustain us a clear understanding of how policies and legislation have changed in order to correct outcomes for children in relation to availa ble resources, shared responsibilities and managing risk. barely social policy, conflicting law, has the potential to be proactive to set in go into a series of principles that define a just and inclusive society and practical(a) merely flexile ways of implementing them. (Hendrick, 2008, p. 336) In the UK, Parliament is responsible for making changes to law. Parliament is do up of the House of Commons, the House of entitles and the Queen, they must both agree to any new law before it underside be passed and become an Act of Parliament. There is non just a adept law in place to protect children but a pile of laws, legislation and guidance which cover all aspects of childrens address in the UK. (Alcock et al. 008, p. 19-25). Past information close social policy offers us a view of the past and how it has changed, as Harold Perkin verbalize We want to know non only what laws were made or battles fought or even how men sic got their living, but what it felt like to be alive, how men sic in history non merely kings and popes, statesmen and tycoons lived and worked and thought and behaved towards to each one other. (Perkin, 1981, p. 24) In 1945 the Welfare State was created, this offered a new focal point towards the childrens natural health to accede with earlier worries about the mind and mental health of childrens development.At this time a rising importance on preventive complaint became prominent, serveing at the family and its relationship with the State. These ideas developed slowly during the 1960s 70s and it was recognised that a child should be dealt with as a whole and continuously developing virtuallybody (Hendrick, 1994, p. 263). At this point in time the child became more permitted to have someone rights, giving them responsibilities and independence from traditionally passive and often repressive apology (Hendrick, 1994, p. 57).Worries cropped up with postulate to the balance between too lots and too little handling and particularly between competing claims of parents, children, social workers and topical anaesthetic authority social run departments (Hendrick, 1994, p. 273). The Prevention of Cruelty to and Protection of kidren Act 1889 was the get-go law to hold criminal penalties in the entrust to discourage abuse and indifference of children. This legislation is contained within the kidren and Young Persons Act 1933 which was introduced to protect children from cruelty and exposure to virtuous and somatogenic danger (p. ), some parts of this act are lock up used today but more current guidance mickle be found in the newer Childrens Act 1989. (Youth Justice Board, 2006). This act was set up to help correct and simplify the overabundance of laws concerning children. entitle Chancellor manufacturing business Mackay of Clashfern had said it was the most comprehensive and far-reaching reform of child law which has come before Parliament in living remembering. The Childrens Act 198 9 set out to help keep children reliable and well, within their environment and to provide the necessary provisions where possible, to allow the child to live within their own family structure.Todays child testimonial system has been developed from the Childrens Act 1989. The Childrens Act 1989 requires local councils to make available a variety of service to all children peculiarly those with disabilities, health and development issues these work are intended to help keep children safe and well. Following the Children Act 1989 many another(prenominal) new laws have been passed to improve the ways in which children are protected. (NSPCC, 2010) In September 1989 the United community Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was introduced as the first-class honours degree legally stick to treaty that was to be used internationally.This treaty gave children and young slew under 18 years, throughout the world, human rights (civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights) equal to those over 18 years giving them the extra care and protection which was some(prenominal) needed. The UNCRC set out what rights children have, along with how the government should safeguard those rights. This allows children and young people more or less the world to have an authoritative way to preserve their human rights, allowing them to act in accordance with the law if their rights within this act are not met.The UK disposal did not agree to follow the UNCRC until 1991. Below are just a few of the rights of children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child which piece of ass be found at http//www. unicef. org/crc/files/Rights_overview. pdf. (Fact Sheet) Article 3. The best interests of children must be the primary concern in making decisions that may make a motion them. All adults should do what is best for children. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions entrust affect children. This particularly applies to budget, policy and law makers.Article 6. Children have the right to live. Governments should ensure that children survive and develop healthily. Article 27. Children have the right to a standard of living that is good enough o meet their physical and mental needs. Governments should help families and guardians who cannot afford to provide this, particularly with regard to food, vesture and housing. Article 36. Children should be protected from any activity that takes advantage of them or could harm their welfare and development.There are a total of 54 articles contained within the UNCRC, all of which are equally important and linked with each other, on that pointfore working well in concert and easy to understand. all child should be made sensible of their rights (article 42), as it is our duty to safeguard their rights and ensure they have opportunities to live in a safe environment with all of their needs being met. In my opinion if a child is aware of their rights they are less likel y to be exploited, giving them an understanding of how they can watch to be treated and hope in full have a percentage that can be heard.A child friendly poster has been produced with the articles set out in laymens terms allowing children to understand their rights more easily. (UNICEF). Children around the world are subject to neglect and abuse and all because adults are failing to protect them. Throughout the UK during the past years progressions in human rights and civil rights have change alongside those rights of the child. The eradication of physical penalization in schools and attempts to ban the smacking of children by parents shows us that the rights of the child are being listened too.It has been argued by Kay that until newly children didnt really have person rights she believed that their rights were conferred via their parents (2001, p. 14). This is where childrens rights were ignored, not allowing the child to have a say or be listened to. Social work has been c ritiqued by Smith for lagging do-nothing legal expectations of consultation with children. (1996, pg 55). Some of the criticisms have been focused around the want of taking into account the needs of each child as an individual and not fully listening to the childs own wishes during proceedings.Social services have regularly been criticised for failing some children through lack of support and services to the families when they were needed. Even turning a blind affectionateness in some cases, thus having a detrimental effect on children, predominantly looked after children and those in need, unfortunately some cases have resulted in devastating circumstances for some children. capital of Seychelles Climbie is one of those unfortunate children she died at the age of 8 years in February 2000 while living with her carers.She was subjected to physical and mental abuse but no-one noticed. Her death led to an independent motion which helped shape and change safeguarding polices for chi ldren in England. The inquiry was chaired by Lord Laming in April 2001 (alongside 4 other professional assessors). Laming carried out his research by partakeing all that were involve in the care of Victoria before her death, this involved 277 picture statements and 158 witnesses. Through these inquiries it was established that her bereavement was avertable on 12 individual instances.Through Lamings inquiry it came to accrue that services involved in the care of children were not working together or sharing information, some difficulties had arisen due to low staffing directs and available resources. Lord Laming gave a speech about his inquiries on 25th January 2003 saying I well recognise that the frontline services charged with the protection of children have a difficult and demanding task. Adults who deliberately harm, neglect or exploit the vulnerability of children often go to great lengths to obliterate their behaviour. (Laming, 2003). Laming found that if services had in tervened just a little in the case of Victoria her death could have been avoided. As a result of the inquiry, 108 recommendations were made to change to local services these recommendations had to be acted on swiftly. Following Lord Lamings report on Victoria Climbies death the government responded by writing two reports, the Keeping Children Safe report (DFE, 2003) and the Every Child Matters green paper (DFE, 2003) which resulted in the Children Act 2004.This act introduced further laws and legislation in respect of protecting children from harm and neglect, particular tension was wander onto safeguarding children requiring local authorities to implement topical anaesthetic Safeguarding Children Boards. The Children Act 2004 did not substitute or spay much of the Children Act 1989, but ameliorate and expanded it, offering guidance on how services could work together to improve outcomes for children. (Barker, 2008) The Every Child Matters green paper was intended to look at ho w to prevent incidents like that of Victorias instead of weft up the pieces nd was built around four key issues. (Cleaver & Walker, 2004, p. 7) * chant the support available to those around the child, families and carers. * Make sure intervention takes place before its too late for the child, protecting them from harm and slip through the net. * Looking at the problems acknowledged and failings for Victoria within Lord Lamings report. * Making sure that those working with children are valued, rewarded, trained and unplowed up-to-date with current policy.It also identified five outcomes for children this set out guidelines to enable every child to reach the Every Child Matters outcomes to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and gain, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being. The themes and outcomes set out within the Every Child Matters were put in place to ensure that no child/young person should fall through the net again and so all children have opportunities to a chieve their full potential no matter what their circumstances.This has been done by looking at failures in education, reducing health problems, addressing substance/ medicine abuse and tackling anti-social behaviour amongst young people and adults. Research shows that early appointment and support is vital in improving the well-being of children. Proposals set out to offer much needed support for parents and carers so that children can bugger off the protection and assistance from the onset of difficulties no matter what their background. Services were improved by background knowledge up Childrens trusts with multi-agencies working closely together with other services, offering better services to families in local areas.Through the closer network of services (multi-agency) working together information can be closely monitored and shared between all professionals connected to the child, giving a clearer picture of the childs story. (Barker, 2008). Hopefully as services are now wo rking closer together, the case of Victoria will not be repeated, Lord Lamings report highlighted so many unretentive judgment calls that could have been avoided. On each occasion that Victoria was admitted to hospital vitally important information went unrecorded and staff failed to act on their suspicions and observations.Telling marks on Victoria were seen and then all but ignored. (Laming, 2001) To make certain the Every Child Matters targets are met, the government established a new set of regulatory plans and forms of revue using the Care Standards Act 2000. This act created the study Care Standards Commission, setting out national minimum standards which were to be used in childrens homes, fostering services, boarding schools and residential special schools. Regulatory frameworks were also created, e. g. National Service Frameworks to be used for children in health care settings. (DFE, 2003).The Warner sketch set out new guidelines for recruiting staff to work within chil d care homes at the end of 1992. This report set out to fall the risk of abuse to children who were in care and was produced due to a force of high profile court cases. It was hoped that by introducing a Criminal memorialize Check on possible staff would help to find the right kind of person to work with children in care. CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) watch overs are used to swear details of the individual, establishing whether a perspective employee has any convictions that prohibit them from working with children or other vulnerable members of society.Anyone that works regularly with children or is in contact with children (including foster care, adoption or childminders) must have a CRB check to ensure there suitability in order to protect the child. In 1999 the Protection of Children Act was approved and offered a legal foundation for lists to be produced of unsuitable people who had in the past been registered on an informal basis. The surgical incision of Health was sati sfied that all councils had produced policies and procedures in 2002 which met the requirements of the Warner Report but not all were consistent in their implementation of these requirements. Wilson & James, 2007, p. 186-8). The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 arose from the Governments White Paper, Care Matters Time for change, (DFE, 2007), the purpose of the act was to offer higher quality care, outcomes and services for those children in care. The intention of this Act was to modify the legislative framework for the care system in England and Wales, it formed part of the Governments programme to guarantee children and young people are always able to access high quality care and support.It also included the requirements set out so that children and young peoples well-being needs were met in all forms of care. It requires public officials to notify the Local Safeguarding Children Board of all child deaths so they can be fully investigated to ensure there has been no wrong doing , allowing the Secretary of State to wear out research and requests for the release of Emergency Protection Orders. (The National Archives, 2008) The par Act 2010 was brought in to replace all previous equality legislation, providing some of the changes that schools should be aware of.The majority of the new laws and legislation are the akin as previously, for example, schools must not illegitimately discriminate against bookmans because of their sex, race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Some changes include it is now unlawful to discriminate against a transgender pupil, it is now unlawful to discriminate against a pupil who is pregnant or has recently had a baby. Further details can be found through the Department of Education. (DFE, 2011).In June 2010 professor Eileen Munro was commissioned to write a review report on the current issues surrounding Child Protection the completed report, named the Munro Report, was publish in May 2011. The completed r eport set out free radical changes to improve the current systems in place for the protection of children. It was recommended that local areas should be given over more freedom to build up their own efficacious child protection services, instead of having to concentrate on meeting commutation government targets.The report also outlines her concerns that a one-size-fits-all approach to child protection is preventing local areas from focusing on the child, highlighting the need for agencies involved in the protection of children to have a more open mind, dealings with cases individually and using past incidents for learning and development, ensuring future training is teachable with the new regulations making it easily accessible to all involved.It has come to light through the Munro Report that the needs of the child should come first, the amount of paperwork previously involved has been getting in the way of important childrens outcomes. (Munro, 2011) As Professor Eileen Munro said A one-size-fits-all approach is not the right way for child protection services to operate. Top down government targets and too many forms and procedures are preventing professionals from being able to give children the help they need and assess whether that help has made a difference. (2011) Gordon embrown described child poorness as a scar on the soul of Britain (2000). The lives of children and families living in poverty throughout the the UK are subjected to social exclusion. In Britain and other English-speaking countries, the general public and its political representatives expect the child protection system to anticipate and prevent child abuse. Yet a major factor in many cases of child maltreatment is something that, except in marginal ways, child protection professionals can do very little about poverty and social exclusion. (Beckett, 2007, p. 69). Unfortunately professionals working in the child protection circle have their hands bind when it comes to dealing wit h poverty and structural inequalities and are unable to do much about it, saying this it is of upmost importance that child protection workers do have an understanding of the implications poverty brings so that they can be auxiliary and considerate to the families they come into contact with. pauperization is a source of focus and separate out, we know, can push people who otherwise would have coped quite adequately into abusive or neglectful parenting. Beckett, 2007, p169). As we look at the social systems in place, it is more often than not impractical to expect to fail a prime cause of why neglect, abuse or poverty has emerged. It is an understandably known fact that poverty is responsible for high levels of stress within the family and it is often found that stress is definitely a major cause of child abuse and neglect, leading us to possibly believe that children who are abused and neglected often do come from poor families.Children that do come from socially deprived bac kgrounds appear to suffer with easily inferior mental and physical health issues, poverty is experienced in so many areas but do we really know how to deal with it? It is thought that the UK is a rich country with a high level of wealth compared to many international standards but many people in the UK are slake tormented by economic and social deprivation.Child poverty levels within Britain are a particular cause for concern, with variable issues such as single parent families, unemployment and the cost of child care all of which play an important role, contributing to the ever increasing risks of poverty. Poverty has a detrimental effect on many aspects of peoples lives, from unemployment, leading to lack of money, poor housing, low or no egoism etc. , it doesnt just affect the adults but children feel the relegate on effect often suffering in silence. How can child protection workers protect the children of poor people without contributing to the stress that may be one of th e major causes of child maltreatment in the first place? (Beckett, 2007, p. 180). Understandably parents / carers often find the intervention of social workers too much to take, making them feel inadequate in caring for their own children, thus having a detrimental effect on the work social workers do to try and make family life more manageable, giving children the pportunities to boom within their family circle. Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child was introduced over ten years ago there are still areas in the UK which are still struggling to put into practice all of the guidelines. It is clear to see there have been vast changes for the better surrounding the protection of children over the years. Laws and legislation have improved dramatically placing a clearer awareness of childrens rights since the Children Act was first put into practice. Typically, authors write from their own national perspective, with an historical overview of policy developments being prese nted along with a more detailed treatment of the most recent policy developments. (Hudson, Kuhner Lowe, 2010, p. 7) It is interesting to see that some of the original ideas and guidelines are still in place today but it is equally important to remember there will always be room for further improvements. So therefore it is of upmost importance to continually reflect on and act upon new laws and legislation as they arise.I particularly like the wise words of Sir Francis Bacon knowledge is power and acting upon the knowledge we are given gives us the opportunities to help and improve the lives of children in our care. As Lord Laming said at the end of his report into the Victoria Climbie inquiry I hope it will be used in the training of staff not least as a stark warning of the damage that can be done to children as a result of bad practice. in like manner many inquires have had to be held following terrible harm to a child. I and my colleagues hope that this will be the last. (2001)