Legal Powers and Duties of Local Authorities in Relation to the Essay

Legal Powers and Duties of Local Authorities in Relation to the Protection of Children - Essay Example This research will begin with the definition of safeguarding as the process of ‘protecting children’ from such harms as neglect and keeping them safe from impairment of health in order to ensure that they successfully enter adulthood. Admittedly, The United Kingdom’s childcare system is diverse and is offered by private, voluntary, and other independent providers. The country’s childcare offerings include both full day-care and care on a session basis. Private, voluntary, and other providers work in association with children centers and schools in order to deliver flexible and quality services. The UK government has been trying to improve child protection through various rules and regulations which give specific attention to the nation’s increasing child abuse issues. In fact, Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 is the very basis of the responsibilities of the local councils. It points out that the councils are responsible to initiate inquiries if th ey find that a child in their area is probably suffering, or is likely to suffer harm. If it is found in enquires that there is potential harm, the local authority should conduct a discussion with other concerned agencies to initiate a core assessment which leads to procedures to protect the child. Sections 8, 9, and 10 of the Childcare Act 2006 provide local authorities with a set of powers in order to efficiently fulfill their duties, which have been defined under sections 6 and 7 of the Act.... They may provide short term as well as long term financial assistance to providers. In addition, local authorities are given the power to extend their services to families in need; for instance, families with disable children. The authorities can determine the type of assistance to be offered to those families. Section 8(3) specifies certain criteria for providing childcare for a particular child or group of children. As per this section, a local authority must not offer childcare unless it is convinced that there is no one to provide childcare or another person is not willing to do so4. At the same time, section 8(4) of the Act exempts childcare provision under the control of a maintained school from the limits of the section 8(3). The section 8(5) states that subsection 3 is not applicable to childcare provision guidelines defined under section 18(1) or (5) of the Children Act 19895. According to section 9 of the 2006 Act, when local authorities make arrangements with a childcare p rovider by offering financial assistance, they have the power to impose certain requirements on that provider in order to ensure quality of the childcare provided6. In addition, the local authority may require repayment of the whole fund if the provider fails to meet the requirements. Section 10 of the Act provides local authorities with the power to charge for any childcare services they provide; given some exceptions. According to the provisions of the 2006 Act, local authorities do not have any restriction in offering different types of assistance to providers. When there are no possibilities for local authorities to deliver childcare services in partnership with private, volunteer, and