Children’s Rights
Legislation
Y Quaintrell 2008
Legislation relating to children
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UNCRC
Children Act (1989 & 2004)
Childcare Act (2006)
Education Act (1993) – Code of Practice
‘Every Child Matters’ and Children Act (2004)
Human Rights Act (1996)
Carers and Disabled Children’s Act (2000)
Special Education Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001
Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and Disability Rights
Commission Act (1999)
Race Relations Act 2000
Early Years Action & Early years Action Plus
Data Protection Act (1998)
Protection of Children Act (1999)
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Activity
• In small groups, look at the
list of legislation and discuss
what you think each piece is
concerned with.
• What are the main points?
• What is each trying to change
or affect?
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UN Declaration of Human
Rights
• After the second world war international laws
for human rights were seen as necessary.
• ‘The 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights
asserted for the first time that everyone had
rights due to them…simply because they were
human.’ (Burr & Montgomery 2003 p137) This
therefore also includes children
• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration without
distinction of any kind. (ibid., p330)
• Article 26: everyone has the right to education.
Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages (Burr &
Montgomery 2003 p139)
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United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989
• This was drawn up in 1989 and gives
young people under the age of 18 special
rights, the UK became a signatory of
the convention and it became official in
1991
(Tassoni, 2006)
J Westcott 2007
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Significant articles from
UNCRC
• Article 2 – protected from discrimination
• Article 3 - best interest of the child to be the
primary consideration
• Article 12 – right to be heard
• Article 13 – freedom of expression and exchange of
information
• Article 23 – children with disabilities and learning
difficulties must have their rights protected
• Article 28 – right to an education
(Tassoni, 2006)
J Westcott 2007 Y Quaintrell 2008
The Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 covers the following:
• reforms the law relating to children;
• makes provision for local authority services for
children in need and others;
• amends the law with respect to children's homes,
community home, voluntary homes and voluntary
organisations;
• makes provision with respect to fostering, child
minding and day care for young children and adoption,
and for connected purposes.
• Part X sets out requirements for child minding and
day care for young children such safeguarding
children, registration and inspection of settings
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Children Act 2004
The Children Act 2004 does not replace or even
amend much of the Children Act 1989.
Instead it sets out the process for integrating
services to children so that every child can
achieve the five outcomes laid out in the Every
child matters green paper:
•be healthy
•stay safe
•enjoy and achieve
•make a positive contribution
•achieveYeconomic
well-being
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Children Act 2004
• This Act updates the legislation on
physical punishment by making it an
offence to hit a child if it causes mental
harm or leaves a mark on the skin
(section 58)
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Every Child Matters
The five outcomes which mattered most to
children and young people were:
1.
Being healthy: enjoying good physical
and mental health and living a healthy
lifestyle.
2.
Staying safe: being protected from
harm and neglect
3.
Enjoying and achieving: getting the most
of life and developing the skills for
adulthood.
4.
Making a positive contribution: being
involved with the community and society
and not engaging in anti-social or
offending behaviour
5.
Economic well-being: not being
prevented by economic disadvantage
from gaining their full potential in life.
(Every Child Matters Summary)
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Childcare Act 2006
A pioneering piece of legislation, it’s the first act that is
just about early years and childcare.
The act will help change childcare and early years services in
England pushing forward some of the key commitments from the
Ten Year Childcare Strategy, published in December 2004.
Local authorities must:
•Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school
children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes
•secure sufficient childcare for working parents
•provide a better parental information service
The act also simplifies early years regulation and inspection
arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care
quality framework for pre-school children and also for the new
Ofsted Childcare Register.
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The Education Act
• The Education Reform Act of 1988 is
widely regarded as the most important
single piece of education legislation in
England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
since the 'Butler' Education Act 1944.
(Wikipedia 2008)
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The main provisions of the
Education Reform Act
• 1. Grant Maintained Schools (GMS) were introduced.
Primary and Secondary Schools could, under this
provision, remove themselves fully from their LEA
and would be completely funded by central
government. Secondary schools also had limited
selection powers at the age of 11.
• 2. The Local Management of Schools (LMS) was
introduced. This part of the act allowed all schools to
be taken out of the direct financial control of Local
Authorities. Financial control would be handed to the
head teacher and governors of a school
• 3. The National Curriculum (NC) was introduced.
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The main provisions of the
Education Reform Act
• 4. ‘Key Stages' (KS) were introduced in
schools. At each key stage a number of
educational objectives were to be achieved.
• 5. An element of choice was introduced,
where parents could specify which school was
their preferred choice.
• 6. League tables, publishing the examination
results of schools, were introduced.
• 7. Controls on the use of the word 'degree'
were introduced with respect to UK bodies
• (Wikipedia 2008)
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The Carers and Disabled
Children Act 2000
• The Carers and Disabled Children Act
2000 is a 2000 Act of Parliament in the
relationship between Carers and disabled
children. This includes:
• The Carers and Disabled Children Act
2000 gives local councils the power to
supply certain services direct to carers
following assessment. There is also a new
right to a carer's assessment even where
the person cared for has refused an
assessment for, or the provision of,
community care services.
• Persons with parental responsibility for a
disabled child (parents or other carers)
also have a right to ask for an assessment.
• (Wikipedia, 2008)
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Early Years Action School Action
• This is the introduced when the normal
differentiation of the curriculum has been tried out,
but staff still remain concerned about meeting the
child’s needs.
• Early Years action is in house support from the
setting. This means that the SENCO worker and the
Early Years practitioner will talk to the parent and
the child.
• Individual Educational plans will then be drawn up
showing the strategies and resources that will
provide more support for the child. The plans will
then be monitored and reviewed to see if this level of
support is effective.
J Westcott 2007 Y Quaintrell 2008
Early Years Action Plus –
School Action Plus
• This is the next step means that other professionals
outside of the setting will be contacted, with the
prior agreement of the parents/carers.
• The Individual Education Plans will still be used, but
other professionals are likely to contribute ideas and
strategies to make them more effective.
• The setting will continue to review and monitor the
child’s progress and will still be expected to
differentiate activities or resources to suit the child.
• To trigger Early Years Action the setting will have to
provide evidence of IEP’s and strategies used.
J Westcott 2007 Y Quaintrell 2008
Data
Protection Act (1998)
This Act applies to all of us, in different
situations.
For example, your information that is kept at
your GP’s has to be kept safe, and cannot be
passed to anyone else, except for medical
purposes.
Children’s records must be kept safe and
confidential. Child protection records must be
kept separately from their other records and
only certain people must be allowed access to
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these.
Reference List
• Tassoni.P., (2006) BTEC National in Early Years, London,
Heinneman Educational Publishers
• Burr.R., Montgomery.M., (2003) Children and Rights in
Woodhead.M., Montgomery.H., (2003) Understanding Childhood,
Milton Keynes, Open University, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons
• Ibid cited in above
• Wikipedia, 2008, Carers and Disabled Children’s Act available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carers_and_Disabled_Children_Ac
t_2000 accessed 21/4/08
• Wikipedia, 2008, Education Reform Act 1988 available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Reform_Act_1988
accessed 21/4/08
• DfES (2003) Every Child Matters Summary available at:
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk accessed 21/4/08
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Activity
• Now consider how these
effect or are
implemented within your
setting.
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