Social workers experience at first hand the fundamental tensions which exist in child care law between the need to protect the interests of the child and the right of the family unit to live in dignity without interference from government agencies. In this thought-provoking study Clive Grace argues that the operation of child care law cannot be properly understood without consideration of the ways social workers use law in their day-to-day dealings with children and their families. This book highlights and explores the disjunctures which arise between the social work and the legal reasoning applied to child protection cases, disjunctures which have profound implications for the operation of child care law, and for the human rights of the children and families involved. Based on extensive empirical research involving over 180 individual case studies this book examines how social workers are hampered by a lack of policy direction at departmental level, and concludes with a number of constructive suggestions for remedying this deficiency.