“…The 'child as threat', though not the dominant image of the child influencing Parliamentary law-making for most of the last two centuries (Piper, 1999a), has been an ever present motivation for charitable and state intervention in the family (Eekelaar et al, 1982;Hendrick, 1994;Morris and Giller,1987) and also specifically in relation to youth work (Stenson and Factor, 1995). The Education Act 1944, as amended by section 120 of the Education Reform Act 1988 (see Paraskeva,1992), established the British Youth Service by placing a duty on local authorities to secure the provision of social, physical and recreational training for young people through a variety of often uncoordinated providers in the voluntary and public sectors.…”