A Management Solution to Keeping Children Safe: Can agencies on their own achieve what Lord Laming wants?

This paper was written shortly after the publication of the Laming Report and before the publication of Every Child Matters. Much that has happened since then has addressed the concerns we raised. To bring the paper up to date with these developments would require rewriting it altogether. That said, it is, perhaps, not merely of historical interest. Those reading it may like to consider two issues. First, how far have services in fact moved to address the concerns we outline? Second, how far do services continue to be dogged by an unrealistic desire to eliminate risk? Insofar as the paper prompts these reflections, it will have met its authors' aims.