In the United Kingdom, individual and family-level interpretations of child protection have historically predominated over community-level interpretations. A balanced approach that gives equal emphasis to community-level interventions to facilitate healthy child development is particularly important in the United Kingdom because of the large structural inequalities in the distribution of income and other resources and services. In considering the role of community-level factors in efforts to protect children from maltreatment, it is useful to begin by tracing the development of two strands of legislation and policy for vulnerable children. The first strand concerns incident-based definitions of maltreatment and reactive responses to individual cases of child abuse. This contrasts with the second strand of policy, which focuses more on the influence of the wider community circumstances in which children are developing. This second strand of legislation and policy aims to reduce social exclusion and develop prevention strategies to protect and enhance children's health and development. Within this policy context, this article reviews research evidence about the role of community-level factors in children's lives. This review distinguishes between compositional and area influences, and the role of social networks and social capital is emphasized. The article concludes by considering the implications of the research evidence for community approaches to improving children's healthy development and protection from maltreatment. 73 references