The impetus for the Childrens Act involved an inquiry by the Social Services Committee of the House of Commons into child care. The Social Services Committee established an interdepartmental working group on child care in 1984 which issued a series of discussion papers and held a seminar on the protection of children in emergencies. The committee determined that problems had arisen because of the practice by some magistrates of making an emergency protection order under the Children and Young Persons Act of very limited duration. The committee also identified other deficiencies of public safety orders and evaluated the effectiveness emergency protection orders and child assessment orders. The author points out that the Childrens Act makes no specific provision for emergency orders in relation to private law proceedings involving children. He believes that emergency protection orders should be used in cases of genuine emergency only and not as an automatic response to certain situations or to facilitate disclosure work where sexual abuse is alleged.