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The article explores the drivers for legislative and policy change in children's social care in England over the past 60 years. It describes the factors that led to the major children's social care legislation and explores how these ‘drivers for change’ varied in their importance over time. Particular attention is given to the impact of research evidence as a driver for change among, for example tragedy and media scandal, political developments and changes in practice prompting legislative reform. The article also notes how research has at times provided a background for change while not explicitly promoting the change itself. The use of performance information and research in shaping and monitoring change is seen to have increased in the past 30 years, but with continuing tensions between a natural and necessary research timescale and the political wish for quick and clear answers to pressing issues.

The government's vision for children's services in England and Wales, Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), and the subsequent Children Act 2004 are ground‐breaking in that they encourage local authorities to focus on child outcomes and demand the integration of previously separate services, such as social care and education. Previous articles in this series were by Herbert Laming (2006), whose inquiry helped pave the way for the 2004 legislation, and Tom Jeffery (2006), the Director‐General of the central government Directorate for Children, Young People and Families. In this article, John Coughlan, one of the new Directors of Children's Services, gives his perspective on implementing the new legislation at local authority level. What follows is an edited transcript of John Coughlan's comments.

The Children Act 1989 sought to be evidence based in that its development reflected a growing body of research in the field of child care. This article explores the dynamic relationship between research, policy and practice in child welfare in the UK over the subsequent 21 years. It looks at the implications for the workforce and professional expertise, with a particular focus on social work. Initially, the implementation of the Act was closely associated with social services but provision has become more integrated and multidisciplinary. This has led to a far‐reaching debate about the roles and tasks of social work and its efficacy in safeguarding and promoting children's welfare. Social work can make a broad contribution to child welfare but to realise this both the role of social work and the knowledge base on which it is based must not be defined in a narrow or prescriptive way.

This paper aims to critically examine the idea that devolution in Wales, compared with England, brings a decisive shift in the delivery of children's services and, by extension, challenges our assumption that the Children Act 1989 remains as a primary unifying force in child welfare legislation.

The paper primarily addresses those matters pertaining to public law under parts III‐V of the Act that give force to core functions within the personal social services in Wales and England. It looks at the Act from the viewpoint of devolution in Wales.

The evolution of services, new policy frameworks and changes to the UK political architecture since the implementation of the Act have transformed the delivery of children's services. The 1989 Act remains prominent but such changes have brought a very different shape and purpose to the occupational world in which the Act was first launched in Wales and England.

The paper shows that it is much less clear if the 1989 Act can be “read off” today – as perhaps it could when it was first enacted – as an inclusive encoding of what local authorities and their partners should and must do for children.

The Children Act 2004 provides for the establishment of information‐sharing databases. This has provoked some controversy, particularly the inclusion of ‘flags of concern’. This article argues that the Government needs to tread carefully to achieve the right balance between confidentiality and information‐sharing.

The Government's vision for children's services in England and Wales, Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), and the subsequent Children Act 2004 are ground‐breaking in that they encourage local authorities to focus on child outcomes and demand the integration of previously separate services, such as social care and education. Previous articles in this series were by Herbert Laming (2006), whose inquiry helped pave the way for the 2004 legislation, Tom Jeffery (2006), the Director‐General of the central government Directorate for Children, Young People and Families, and John Coughlan (2006), a Director of Children's Services in one local authority and president of the Association of Directors of Social Services.This article offers the perspective Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools, a joint venture between Partnerships UK ‐ established by HM Treasury six years ago ‐ and the Department for Education and Skills ‐ the UK government's lead department on children's services. The remit of Partnerships for Schools is to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 15‐year time period. Previously, Tim Byles was Chief Executive in Norfolk, a local authority with a population of 830,000 and a budget of £1.25 billion. In that job, Tim took a pivotal role not only in implementing the Children Act 2004, but also in working with central government to resolve problems that emerged as the bill passed through parliament. What follows is an edited transcript of Tim Byles's comments.

This review sets out the legislative amendments that have been made to the Children Act 1989 since it was implemented in 1991. It highlights the most significant changes to the original wording of the Act, with brief summaries of the relevant background and references to comment by leading figures in law and social work. The review follows the structure of the Act, beginning with the welfare principle and covering: private law provisions; local authority duties to children in need; care orders; and child protection. It is concluded that the majority of the amendments have arisen through increased recognition of the impact of domestic violence on children, campaigning by the fathers' rights movements and the economic pressures on local authorities that have prevented the provision of adequate services to children in need.

Early years policy and services have been subjected to substantial and rapid reform over the past 20 years. This article provides a brief overview of legislative and policy changes over this period, with a particular focus on regulation and workforce issues, and traces the enduring influence of the Children Act 1989 to the present. It identifies a paradigm shift in early years services from a world view based on public health and care and on devolution of responsibility, to one in which promoting children's learning and development is core and centralised regulation and national standards are seen as essential. This is reflected in changed responsibilities at government department and regulatory body level. Despite these major changes, the article concludes that the key principles of the Act ‐ in terms of children's rights, parents' responsibilities, listening to children and inter‐agency co‐operation ‐ are still apparent.

The modes of governance underpinning public sector services have been reshaped several times in the post‐war period, leaving a mixture of command and control, marketisation and partnership working. There is now a call for a new and ambitious phase that might be termed ‘whole systems working’, and the most ambitious focus for this phase is the Every Child Matters reforms being ushered in under the Children Act 2004. This article describes the whole‐systems nature of the changes and identifies a range of difficulties that need to be addressed.

This article describes the contrast between the clearly expressed and optimistic intentions of section 17 of the Children Act 1989, namely to produce a genuine service continuum that will promote and safeguard the welfare of children, and the reality of the post‐1989 implementation process. It shows how, over decades, perennial challenges have consistently skewed the balance between proactive family support services and reactive crisis‐driven responses in favour of the latter. Drawing on government‐commissioned evaluations, including two on out‐of‐home care and family centres respectively, the authors conclude that the Act has failed to change this balance for the better. Primary factors in this include inadequate funding and the risk‐averse responses of policy‐makers and politicians.