A note on the chronology and guide

Law and policy provide the framework for professional interventions and practices with children caring for parents with severe mental illness. Since the Second World War, many laws and ‘policies’ have been introduced and developed by government concerning vulnerable children, young carers, adult carers, and people with mental health problems, although very few are specifically and directly concerned with children caring for parents with severe mental illness.

Here, we present a chronology and guide to the key pieces of legislation and policy that have relevance to young carers looking after parents with severe mental illness. Starting with relevant law and policy initiatives from the 1940s, we follow these developments through to the current day.

There is always a fine line to be drawn between including (and regarding it as relevant and appropriate), and excluding an entry. This judgement is less difficult with regards to the law. We have included entries on legislation which specifically refer to young carers, vulnerable children and adults with mental illness (most of the community care legislation also refers to this latter group). These legal entries are concerned with the law in England. There are differences in the legal framework of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In terms of what to include as ‘policy’, we have been helped by Levin's (1997, p 19) categorisation. Levin suggests that a policy can be recognised because it has certain attributes. ‘Policy’ denotes belongingness; that is, a policy belongs to someone or some body. Policy also has status and authority, and denotes commitment on the part of policy makers to get things done. Finally, a policy also possesses the attribute of specificity. Some stated intentions are quite specific, others less so. The less specific a policy, the more options it leaves open when it comes to translating the policy into action. The more specific it is the closer it is to being a single blueprint for action. A policy must have at least some degree of specificity for it to be distinguishable from other policies. Each of the ‘policy’ entries in the chronology has these four attributes.

The chronology does not refer to other developments (for example, academic debates) or to other documents (for example, research reports/research findings on young carers, or mental health reports).