ABSTRACT
Child protection systems should promote the ‘best interests’ of children, but debate exists about how achievable this is. Two main conceptualisations of child protection – the rescue model and the public health model – have different implications for justice, but neither is satisfactory. The chapter offers a framework in which the interests of children are balanced against those of parents, communities and society. Focusing on Indigenous and minority ethnic children, it shows how just child protection systems are possible, but only if justice is seen as an evolving rather than a fixed characteristic.
