The Children (Scotland) Act 1995: developing policy and law for Scotland's children - Softcover

This volume represents the first comprehensive revision of Scottish child care law since 1968, when the Social Work (Scotland) Act was passed. The Act's new terminology and concepts - including parental responsibilities, children's rights, and "children in need" - have the potential to provide the impetus for substantial changes in practice and to influence more positive attitudes towards children. It brings together different areas of law affecting children and attempts to rationalize and co-ordinate them, inducing basic principles across all aspects. The book sets the Act within its policy context by describing and analyzing the many reports, reviews and critical incidents which contributed to the formulation of the legislation. It offers and analysis of the Act itself, and the developments leading up to it, based on a series of key policy themes, and provides a comparison with parallel legislation in other parts of the UK.