Child Welfare and Child Protection Services in England

This chapter explores the child welfare and child protection services in England. The child protection system refers to the multi-agency and inter-professional arrangements following specific government guidelines on the assessment and service concerning child maltreatment. Suspected maltreatment reports are directed to the police or children’s social services. Data on rates of abuse cannot be quantified easily due to the lack of a formal system of reporting and substantiation of abuse allegations. However, England does have a robust administrative data collection to understand the demands on the child welfare system. Tension is growing between policy-makers, social workers, and advocacy groups with regards to enforcing a rights-based and participatory approach to child welfare.