ABSTRACT
Within the social policy literature concerned with children and their families the definition and analysis of policy issues have been separated into two spheres: child care, and child health and welfare. The literature often appears to be more concerned with charting the history, and legitimating the occupational licence of the occupations working with children and their families, than with delineating the relationship between children and state action. The narrative of state action is obscured by the institutional and occupational segregation of policy implementation by different agencies and professional groups. Significant sections of the literature are best seen as part of the process of defining occupational jurisdiction and as an aspect of the professional image-making of the main occupational groups working with children and their families.
