ABSTRACT
The period since the (re)discovery of child abuse in the early 1960s has been one where child protection policy and practice in all countries in the Anglophone world has been subject to conflicting demands and increasingly high profile political and media opprobrium. Child protection systems have been subject to continual change and reform, often in the wake of a major child abuse scandal, usually where a child has died and where a variety of health, welfare, and criminal justice agencies are seen to have failed to intervene appropriately. Social workers, in particular, have come in for considerable criticism and have not been seen as competent in fulfilling the tasks expected of them. Policy and practice have been changed primarily in response to failure and in a context of crisis. This is powerfully illustrated in the political response to the tragic death of Victoria Climbié in London in 2000.
