ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the court orders that can assist with investigation and assessment when there is a need to protect children in an emergency. It considers police powers and the provision of refuges for runaway children. During the late 1970s and early 1980s there was considerable and mounting criticism of the place of safety order, the order used for protecting children in an emergency. This ‘frustrated access’ ground for an emergency protection order needs to be distinguished from the grounds for a child assessment order. An emergency protection order can be granted initially to last for up to eight days, with special provisions for an extension if the eighth day is a Sunday or public holiday. The Family Law Act 1996 amended the Children Act to provide that the court could make an exclusion requirement at the same time as making an emergency protection order or interim care order.
