ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the process by which policy is relayed from one level to another, and the extent to which omissions, additions, amendments, interpretations and distortions take place in that process. One interpretation of child protection policy would include only those policies and services which are concerned with the identification of children who are being harmed or are likely to be harmed, and the action which may be taken to prevent further harm to those children. The expectation of the review was that it would take official child protection policy promulgated by the government as the starting point for an examination of the effectiveness of the work of the Area Child Protection Committees. For instance local government reorganisation has been a completely different process in Wales from in England, and the circulars relating to the implementation of children’s services planning have been very different in Wales.
