Family centres: protection and promotion at the heart of the Children Act 1989
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/jcs.2010.0548 |
| Date | 27 September 2010 |
| Pages | 25-36 |
| Published date | 27 September 2010 |
| Author | Chris Warren‐Adamson,Anita Lightburn |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
Journal of Children’s Ser vices • V olume 5 Issue 3 • Sept ember 2010 © Pier Professional Ltd 25
10.5042/jcs.2010.0548
Abstract
This article reflects on the significance of family centres in the UK as a mirror of new
local authorities in England and Wales to provide family centres as part of ‘family support
practice’. The article reveals a rich vein of family-centred, centre-based activity internationally
and shows practice combining intervention from the sophisticated to the very informal.
The authors focus on so-called ‘integrated centres’ as complex systems of care with wide
implications for practice and outcome evaluation in an ‘evidence-based’ context.
Key words
Family centre; promotion; protection; integrated practice
of facilities for families at risk and sophisticated
treatment. This article describes the range of
such practices, noting international trends, before
proceeding to examine the potential of what we
call the ‘integrated centre’ – one that uniquely
embraces the tension posed in the Act, namely to
safeguard and promote the welfare of the child.
Part III, schedule 2 gave impetus to a family
support practice that combines protection or
safeguarding with the promotion of the welfare of
the child. ‘Safeguarding’ means work that primarily
establishes the safety of the child, notably through
enquiry and sometimes compulsion. ‘Promoting’
means work to secure good opportunities for
the child, for example in living arrangements and
attachments, in education and future work and in
Introduction
This article reflects on the special significance
of family centres in the UK as a mirror of new
possibilities for child welfare in the years following
the implementation of the UK Children Act 1989.
The Act empowered local authorities in England
and Wales to provide family centres for families of
children in need as well as neighbourhood families,
reflecting a UK family centre movement that
emerged in the mid-1970s and gathered strength
in the 1980s and 1990s, before slowing or meshing
with the emerging children’s centre movement.
This so-called movement of family centres
describes a spectrum of centre-based practices
with a broad range of emphases, from community
work and neighbourhood change to the provision
Family centres: protection
and promotion at the heart
of the Children Act1989
Chris Warren-Adamson
University of Brighton, UK
Anita Lightburn
Fordham Graduate School of Social Service, US
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