Under this law, the police have the power to remove children to a safe location for up to 72 hours to protect them from "significant harm".
This Act allowed the police to "take into custody without warrant" anyone who causes harm to children and take the child involved to a place of safety until the case is brought to court.
[2] The police are required to make a professional judgement to decide if a child is at risk of "significant harm" if they do not use their powers of protection.
[5] Guidance published by the Department of Health in 2003 stated that a police station is not suitable accommodation, but if there is no alternative available children should be made comfortable and given access to food, drink and toilet facilities.
A designated officer should be allocated to each police force to deal with these emergency child safeguarding cases and to liaise with local authorities.
[9] Some local authorities choose to seek assistance from the police when courts are unwilling to hear an application for an Emergency Protection order at short notice.
[8] Some police officers feel that they do not have adequate training or skills to make a judgement regarding exercise of their child-protection powers.