Child Welfare and Child Protection Policy.

In this assignment I am going to look at child protection and explore how welfare provision to safeguard children has evolved.

The origins of welfare provision in Britain can be traced back to the Elizabethan Poor Laws.  The notion around these laws was to provide for the ‘deserving poor’, people who could not work through illness or circumstances beyond their control.  The ‘undeserving poor’ were seen as able bodied individuals making no effort to find employment and regarded as ‘wastrels’ (Walsh et al, 2000).

Child protection has gradually developed since the 19th century.  The Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in 1834.  The Act provided some form of state welfare for those in need, the deserving poor.  The Government recognised inequality in provisions and intended to address this by providing some form of welfare for children and their families.  The philosophy behind these Poor Laws were very moralistic, with the belief that being poor was the persons fault and work, regardless of how poorly paid should be enough to provide support (Hill, 2003).

In 1883, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) was established in Britain although it was originally named the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC, 2006).  Whilst other charitable organisations such as Barnardo’s were concerned with child welfare at that time, the NSPCC was more focused on protecting children living in their own homes (Corby, 2006).  The NSPCC was also inspirational for the introduction of The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1889.  The Act gave police powers to remove children from home if they were deemed to be at risk and enabled children to be subject to ‘fit person orders’ if their parents had been convicted of crimes against them.  Additional Acts followed in 1894, 1904 and 1908 that broadened the original Act which today has many of the same key principles  that existed in Victorian times (Corby,2006).

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Following the death of Dennis O’Neill who aged 12 was killed by his foster father, the Curtis Committee was set up in 1946 to examine the conditions of children deprived of a normal family life which resulted in the Children Act 1948  (Hill, 2003).  The main principles of the Act included establishing Local Authority Children’s departments staffed by childcare officers, promoting foster rather than residential care and where possible rehabilitating children back to their families (Hendrick, 2003).

Since that time, key legislation for children and families is The Children Act 1989.  The Act was implemented following numerous inquiries ...

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