Children's Act 2004

The Children’s Act 2004 provides the legal basis for how social services and other agencies deal with issues relating to children.

These guidelines have been laid down so that all individuals who are involved in the looking after children, be it in the home, the work place, school or other locale are aware of how children should be looked after in the eyes of the law.

Principles of the Act

The Children’s Act 2004 was designed with guiding principles in mind for the care and support of children.

These are:

• To allow children to be healthy
• Allowing children to remain safe in their environments
• Helping children to enjoy life
• Assist children in their quest to succeed
• Help make a contribution – a positive contribution – to the lives of children
• Help achieve economic stability for our children’s futures

This act was brought into being in order for the government in conjunction with social and health service bodies to help work towards these common goals.

Key Areas of the Act

Several key areas of the Children’s Act 2004 which are – again – in the throes of reform are the levels of Inter-Agency co-operation when it comes to matters relating to the well being of children. This particular element of the Children’s Act ensures that any agency that is aware of the maltreatment of a child – or the misconduct of a child’s legal guardian – should make their findings known to other agencies that might have a hand in the protection of a child who would normally go unmonitored.

The Children’s Act 2004 also deals with Children’s Trusts; bodies that have been set up independently of Health and Social Services and other government agencies as a means of introducing co-operation not only between these agencies but between teachers parents, guardians and children alike who would normally be dismissive of intervention from outside sources.

In addition to this the Children’s Act 2004 also made provision for a Children’s Fund; this fund is designed to aid in the eradication of poverty and financial hardship felt by underprivileged children or children who’s family’s financial circumstances leave them disadvantaged.

The idea of the Children’s fund is to ensure that children between the ages of five and thirteen are in regular attendance at school. The fund also helps to reduce the risk of crime carried out by children between these ages and to try – where possible – to ensure that these children have the best possible start in life.

Again all of these remits fall tightly under the umbrella of the Children’s Act 2004 and all of them are required by law to be carried out to their fullest in order to ensure – and provide – the best and most accurate levels of care and protection.

This is, of course, not to say that Social Services and other government bodies have taken to interfering in the lives of many British citizens but the systems are in place to ensure that those who need to benefit from them do so in a way that is none intrusive and as relaxed as possible.

If you would like more information on the Children’s Act 2004 and its subsequent reforms your local Social Services department and/or Local Education Authority (LEA) will be only too happy to help.

Find out More

For more information on child welfare and protection have a read through our articles on Child Welfare When Working With Kids and also Child Protection and Working With Children.