Lauren Devine

The Limits of State Power & Private Rights

Exploring Child Protection & Safeguarding Referrals and Assessments

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

State Powers and Private Rights in the UK Child Protection System: Policing Parents examines in detail the UK child protection and safeguarding system, exploring its theoretical and legal basis and implications in modern society. The system of child protection and safeguarding derives from a couple of short, statutory provisions in the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. These provisions have created a multi-billion pound industry in the UK implemented by local authorities, private companies and the legal profession. Other systems elsewhere in the world have similar structures, including the US, Australia and most European countries. The main objective of this book is to tackle the difficult issue of the balance between the rights of the individual, and the power of the state to interfere with those rights. From this approach it is possible to critique several aspects of the system and consider the key issues of concern. For example, a system of child protection might be considered successful from a social science perspective but not from a legal or financial viewpoint. This raises the issue of what measure should be used to evaluate the system given its multi-disciplinary implications. Filling a gap in the existing literature, the author considers different aspects of child protection literature and has brought them together, providing a text which enables the reader to gain insight into seemingly diverse aspects and effects of the enabling statutory provisions. The book will be of interest to academics, lawyers, theorists and social workers with an interest in child protection, privacy and state powers.

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The Limits of State Power & Private Rights: Exploring Child Protection & Safeguarding Referrals and Assessments examines in detail the UK child protection and safeguarding system, exploring its theoretical and legal basis and implications in modern society.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales)
• Seitenzahl: 209
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. März 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm x 14mm
• Gewicht: 494g
• ISBN-13: 9781138782266
• ISBN-10: 1138782262
• Artikelnr.: 42025076

Autorenporträt

Dr Lauren Devine, Associate Professor of Law, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK is a Barrister writing about State power, private rights and child protection. Lauren is Principal Investigator of the Economic and Social Research Council funded project 'Rethinking Child Protection Strategy'.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
Exploring the issue: State power and private rights
Central themes and structure of the book
Chapter 1 - Development of the State's role: child welfare & family
policing
The State's developing role in children's welfare: good intentions and
opposing narratives
The development of child welfare principles
The development of State principles for the protection of children
Moving from parental autonomy to parental responsibility
The refocusing debate
Safeguarding and early intervention
Conclusion: the modern categorisation of levels of surveillance and
interference
Chapter 2 - Defining and measuring the problem
Defining child abuse
Issues of measuring the prevalence of, and predicting, child abuse
Prevalence: measuring of the amount of child abuse in England
Measuring the outcome
Risk prediction: can child abuse be predicted and prevented?
Conclusion: issues of measuring success
Chapter 3 - Identifying families for policing
The modern surveillance role of the state: identifying children for
referral
Introducing mass surveillance and recording of information about children:
part of the e-Government agenda
Policing by surveillance of all families: intelligence gathering and its
limits
Conclusion: the challenge of balancing consent and coercion in the
surveillance framework
Chapter 4 - The policing of parents: social work involvement
Social work response to referrals: State power and private rights
The framework of assessment
The Munro review of child protection: final report, a child centred system
and changes to Working Together to Safeguard Children
The Public Law Outline 2014
The process of assessment
Consensual assessment
Coercive assessment
Conclusion: issues of safeguards and controls over State powers of
assessment
Chapter 5 - Paradigms, policy & policing
Smith's schema: exploring the 'fractured lens'
The stages of the assessment procedures in 'child protection' and
'safeguarding' schema
Conclusion: implications for assessment
Chapter 6 - The balance of State power and private rights: considering
protections for children and parents
Moving from 'ownership' to 'responsibility': disowned children and the
burden of policing parental responsibility
What is the legal and policy framework of 'child protection' and
'safeguarding' trying to achieve?
By what mechanisms is the legislative and policy framework trying to
achieve its purpose?
The issue of families harmed by State surveillance and assessment
Defining harm
Unsubstantiated allegations and unfounded concerns
Conclusion: power imbalance and individual harm
Chapter 7 - The question of remedies
Complaints procedures and Judicial Review
Defamation
The European Convention on Human Rights 1950 and the Human Rights Act 1998
Common law negligence
Conclusion: remedies - an inadequate position
Chapter 8 - Reforming policy: the politics of change
The question of reform
Framework for a new approach
Privacy, data and consent: taking the Anderson recommendations seriously
Referrals: improving methods of making and recording referrals
Assessments: a bespoke investigatory body and code of practice
Outcomes: issues of exoneration and redress in unsubstantiated cases
Specific remedies in unsubstantiated cases
Conclusion: rebalancing - the basis for reform
Conclusion
Index