Child Protection: Messages from Research (1995) HMSO Department of Health

Assembled and summarised by the Research Unit, this was the third in a series of UK government publications summarising and disseminating the results of child care research funded by the Department of Health Between 1975 and 1995 the most significant change in UK child care practice was the move from looking after children in foster care and residential care to supporting them at home. By the end of the period, the latter outnumbered the former by seven to one, compared with an estimated ratio of one to two in the 1970s. The Children Act 1989 introduced greater flexibility in the use of looked after services so that family support or accommodation complemented each other rather than offering alternatives. Previous surveys had indicated changing patterns of referral and intervention, but the extent was not fully appreciated until the evidence assembled for this overview of the Department of Health’s research initiative on child protection became available in 1996. The publication confirmed the trend and indicated that family support ought to be the preferred option to protect the majority of children at risk of abuse and neglect. It was part of the government and research community’s response to the problems raised by a series of inquiries tackling emerging anxieties about child sexual abuse, physical maltreatment and neglect.