ABSTRACT
Legal and professional responsibilities
This chapter outlines some of the legal and professional responsibilities of those working with children. It explains briefly the British Parliamentary process, by which a Green Paper moves to Royal Assent and falls into legislation as an Act of Parliament.
The relationship between policy, legislation and professionalism is examined and how policies are commonly developed either as bottom-up or top-down processes.
The chapter looks briefly at some of the pieces of legislation related to professionalism and the collaborative and cooperative process of policy development in a setting. The chapter finally highlights some of the challenges that policy-makers face to working with staff, children, families and local and national governments to reach the goals of a world-class-quality service for children.
