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11 NOVEMBER 2009
NO 1512
Need and rights
Welfare state services for vulnerable children have traditionally been driven by some formulation of need. In England and Wales, for example, local children's services agencies are required by the Children Act 1989 to assist 'children in need' – defined as those whose health or development is actually impaired or likely to become so without remedial help. This requirement was reinforced by the Children Act 2004 and associated guidance, which emphasise the need for early intervention to improve children's physical and mental health and protect them from harm and neglect. There is also reference to children with 'additional needs' (defined as those at risk of poor outcomes) and local agencies are encouraged to measure the level of need locally and use the results as the basis for planning services. A plethora of child and family need audits are now conducted in local authorities using different methods, although their quality varies considerably (Axford, forthcoming).
The concept of rights has also informed developments in legislation and guidance in children's services over the same period. Governments in all western developed countries bar the US have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This means that their progress in implementing each Article is monitored by an independent body, and local children's services departments are expected – if not necessarily legally obliged (it depends on the country) – to comply with UNCRC requirements. These developments are symptomatic of the zeitgeist (Kennedy, 2000); from being considered the eccentric preserve of activists, human rights has become the language not only of international diplomacy but also of policy and practice in relation to children. In the UK and elsewhere the climate created by such developments has arguably contributed to the appointment of national Children's Commissioners and a variety of mechanisms for ensuring that the 'voice of the child' is heard in policy and practice circles, although the force of many such measures is questionable (e.g. Lyon, 2006).
What factors explain the use of and interest in these developments? The focus on need is heightened by evidence from developmental psychopathology about the interaction of risk factors to produce developmental problems. As will be seen later, talking about children's needs is a helpful way of summarising this information and of pointing towards the root causes of difficulties and, in turn, the kind of intervention required to break the causal chains that are operating (Little et al., 2004). Indeed, much attention has been paid to need assessments in children's services in many countries in recent years (e.g. DoH et al., 2000; Ward and Rose, 2002). The perennial requirement to ration limited resources also gives the need perspective pertinence. In the UK, for example, pressure on public spending since the 1970s has meant increasingly that resources are allocated to providers according the estimated volume of need in their catchment areas (Foreman, 1996).
The concern with rights is partly a product of moral views about children's entitlements to protection and, increasingly, to participation. These were reinforced by the discovery of the 'battered baby' in the UK from the 1960s onwards (Parton, 1985) and reports into the failure of services in child abuse scandals (e.g. Secretary of State, 1974). There is also the growing and powerful influence of service-users. This is reflected to some degree in the concept of 'partnership' in child protection legislation – the view that parents should have more say in the services that they receive and that children are entitled to express their views in key decisions affecting them. Vociferous campaigning regarding disabilities (Oliver, 1996) and the abolition of corporal punishment (Newell, 1989) have also reinforced the rights perspective, as have theoretical developments in 'childhood sociology' – a stream of work that portrays children as active participants in society rather than passive subjects waiting to become adults (e.g. James and Prout, 1997; Mayall, 2002).
NICK AXFORD
Axford, N. (2008). Meeting needs or protecting rights:
Which way for children's services? International Journal of Child
and Family Welfare, 11, 1. pp. 48-48.
REFERENCES
Axford, N. (forthcoming). Defining and classifying children in need: Messages from research. In N. Axford (Ed.) Defining and classifying children in need. Aldershot. Ashgate.
DoH, Department for Education and Employment and Home Office. (2000). Framework for the assessment of children in need and their families. London. The Stationery Office.
Foreman, A. (1996). Health needs assessment. In J. Percy-Smith (Ed.) Needs assessments in public policy. Buckingham. Open University Press. pp. 66-81.
James, A. and Prout, A. (1997). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood (2nd ed.). Brighton. Falmer.
Kennedy, H. (2000). Foreword. In F. Klug. Values for a godless age: The story of the United Kingdom's new bill of rights (pp. xi-xv). London. Penguin.
Little, M.; Axford, N. and Morpeth, L. (2004) Risk and protection in the context of servies for children in need. Child and Family Social Work, 9, 1. pp. 105-117.
Lyon, C.M. (2006). Toothless tigers and dogs' breakfasts: Enhancing or minimizing the rights of children to better protection of their interests? Part 3. Representing Children, 18. pp. 111-126.
Mayall, B. (2002). Towards a sociology for childhood: Thinking from children's lives. Buckingham. Open University Press.
Newell, P. (1989). Children are people too: The case against physical punishment of children. London. Bedford Square Press.
Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. Basingstoke. Macmillan.
Parton, N. (1985). The politics of child abuse. Basingstoke. Macmillan Education.
Secretary of State for Social Services (1974). Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Care and Supervision Provided in Relation to Maria Colwell. London. HMSO.
Ward, H. and Rose, W. (Eds.). (2002). Approaches to
needs assessment in children's services. London. Jessica Kingsley.
