ABSTRACT
Children in the United Kingdom work, and few people realise that it is local education authorities that are responsible for the system of regulation, if indeed they know that such rules even exist. About two-thirds of children will have had some part-time employment outside the family home before they reach schoolleaving age at 16-plus. Children have always worked, and for at least the past three generations, much of what they have done has been carried out illegally. Their parents worked illegally; their older brothers and sisters worked, also illegally. Some of what children do is dangerous, inappropriate and exploitative. For children in general, ensuring that their health and safety has been addressed is a ‘safeguarding’ issue. For an unknown smaller number it is about countering actual abuse according to international definitions, and should be seen as such by those who have the opportunity to challenge it.
