Opening the floodgates: the price of modernisation of child law

The Children Act 1989 forms a modern and integrated legal framework for children proceedings. A victim of its own success, the Act has brought child care law into the spotlight, with more public law cases heard in judge courts and the proceedings making great demands of public funds in social work and legal spheres. There is a need to simplify the process and make more urgent the resolution of cases to better protect children in a timely way.