Comment
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056901500201 |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
PROBATION
Vol 15
No 2 July 1969
Journal
of
the
National
Association
of
Probation
Officers -
4s.
COMMENT
Caring
with
Safeguards
How
should
we
view
the
Children
and
Young
Persons
Bill?
At
the
time
of
writing
it
has
completed
its
Committee
stage,
and
although
it
still
has
some
way
to
go
before
reaching
its
final
form
there
can
be
little
doubt
about
its
main
provisions.
In
a
statement
prepared
by
the
Development
Committee
of
N.A.P.O.
and
published
in
this
journal
in
July
1965
all
the
issues
which
are
being
hotly
debated
today
were
fully
discussed,
and
the
arguments
still
appear
valid.
Most
probation
officers’
we
believe
accept
that
young
children
(just
how
young
is
perhaps
less
clear)
should
wherever
possible
be
dealt
with
outside
the
courts,
and
when
brought
to
court
should be
dealt
with
by
the
children’s
service.
The
new
procedures
for
dealing
with
those
under
14
will
therefore
be
generally
welcomed.
There
are,
however,
many
reservations
about
the
increased
reliance
upon
direct
arrangements
between
social
workers
and
their
clients
without
proper
safeguards
for
the
inarticulate,
who
may
not
be
able
to
resist
an
intervention
in
their
lives
which
they
nevertheless
resent
and
which
may
appear
to
them
to
be
(and
may
actually
be)
unjustified.
Similarly
there
are
anxieties
about
the
processes
which
will
reduce
the
number
of
criminal
prosecutions
against
those
over
14.
N.A.P.O.
has
sought
to
improve
the
Bill
by
suggesting
that
a
new
ofhcial,
an
Examiner,
should be
appointed
to
oversee
all
voluntary
supervision
arrangements
resulting
from
circumstances
which
could
otherwise
be
a
basis
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