ABSTRACT
This chapter is written by a practising guardian ad litem and psychotherapist. Its aim is simple: to comment on trends in child care practice and policy and, in particular, to lament the loss of a perspective on parents’ and children’s histories and pasts. Guardians have a privileged position in the child protection framework. The task, in care and adoption proceedings, ‘to safeguard the child’s best interests until he achieves adulthood’, (DOH 1992: 3), requires guardians ‘to investigate all circumstances relevant to the proceedings . . . regard as the first and paramount consideration the need to safeguard and promote the infant’s best interests until he achieves adulthood and . . . take into account the wishes and feelings of the infant, having regard to his age and understanding, and . . . ensure that those wishes and feelings are made known to the court’ (DHSS 1984: paras 34-8).
