Law's Healing of Children's Hearings

The Paradox Moves North

Bibliographic Data

ID2114167
AuthorsMichael King (0000-0003-4715-7171, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume24
Issue3
Pages315-340
Publication date1995-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279400025149
OpenAlexW2046056710
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited19

This article surveys, from the perspective of systems theory as expounded by Niklas Luhmann, recent developments in the evolution of the role played by Scottish Children's Panels in the protection of children. It traces the way that in England the problem of the paradoxical nature of the social worker's task in protecting children was resolved by reconstructing the problem in legal terms. The same process, it argues, has now occurred in Scottish social work practice, but there ambiguity in the nature of the Children's Panels makes it difficult for social workers to obtain clear legal authority for their actions. Since the Clyde Report on the Orkney case, therefore, considerable controversy has arisen over the future of Children's Panels and, in particular, over their role in emergency situations. This controversy is seen as part of a wider evolutionary process involving law and child welfare, which cannot be adequately explained in terms of changes in political ideology

Ambiguity · Child protection · Economics · Ideology · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Task (project management) · Welfare · Work (physics) · Child Abuse and Trauma · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work

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