There are many issues that must be faced by the social care sector, particularly residential care, if the challenges of the Act are to be met. Today, residential care exemplifies the dysfunction of the child care system. The Act spells out a series of duties and powers relating to the care of young people who have been, for at least three months, under State care or who have been in care to voluntary organizations, registered children's homes, hospitals, education authorities, and foster homes. The section of the Act on special needs stresses the need for close liaison between health and education authorities; to meet these differing needs, there must be effective planning and reliable and coherent management of information. The new legislation demands multi-dimensional linkages between individuals, families, and caregivers that could involve combinations of residential and non-residential care from the public, private, and voluntary sectors. The Act presents a positive image of residential care for children by emphasizing its use as an accommodation. The role of the social care manager is 3-fold: filtering and sending policy decisions, maintaining contact with the children, and collating information on the children. The Act outlines the major effects it will have on juvenile offenders. A guidance paper sets out standards of social care practice to be implemented in independent schools and all schools with boarding facilities. Finally, the guidance on children's homes reinforces practice guidelines long advocated by most professionals.