Child care law and social work.

Child Care Law(1)Jack is a 2-year-old child who lives with his mother, Karen (23). Jack has a physical disability.

Karen is a single parent, who is claiming welfare benefits. Karen has never worked since leaving school. She has limited support from her family.

Karen has talked to the Health Visitor that she has been finding it hard to manage jacks behaviour. The HV has noticed that on occasions Karen doesn't always predict safety/ risk factors around her son. Recently jack had a small bruise on his forehead. Karen seems to be preoccupied worrying about other things rather than being aware of jacks needs. There has been no contact with jacks father since birth.

Section 17 of the Children Act (1989) places a general duty on social services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children 'in need' living in the area and to ensure appropriate services are provided for those children, as well as promoting the upbringing of such children by their families where possible.

A chart showing average monthly welfare benefits (...

Welfare Island Bridge - Roosevelt Island, New York

she

Social services do not have any right to opt out of this requirement or any other part of the Act on the grounds that they do not have resources. (www.gov.uk/ChildrenAct1989)Parental responsibility is referred to in section 2 of the Children Act (1989) and is automatically conferred to the child's mother. If the child's parents are married at the time of the birth then the father also obtains parental responsibility for the child. However if the child was born after 1st December 2003 and the parents were unmarried but the fathers name is on the birth certificate, he too has parental responsibility. In the case of Karen and jack, Karen automatically has parental responsibility, as she is jacks birth mother.

Parental responsibility can be lost in the following ways:•A mother loses parental responsibility when her...