Child impact assessment is part of a much broader field of impact assessment, including social (including health) and environmental impact assessment. This review canvasses child impact assessment literature as it relates to local government, with the following parameters:
ž Children and young people aged 18 years and under (‘children’ in this report).
ž What is likely to support effective local authority assessment of impacts on children in terms
of methods, processes and content?

The focus of this review is on processes that assess the potential impact of a proposed change (called ex ante assessment in the literature), rather than ‘after the event’ assessment or evaluation of actual results (post ante assessment).

Keywords: Training and education, research and evaluation, justice and legislation, education, health, development and disability, monitoring and compliance, children and business, child and family services, academic research