If you are wanting to make changes to the header or footer sections in Magento (for example, change the copyright notice or change the logo) then the place to do this is in
Configuration->General->Design
and then under the “Header” and “Footer” tabs. However if you are using a custom theme you might not have these options available to you.
To fix this you need to log into your ftp client and copy the file “system.xml from
app->code->core->Mage->Page->etc
and save a copy into
app->code->local->Mage->Page->etc
Now when you look back into Configuration->Design you should see a header and footer option.
This had me puzzled for a little while and I was wondering if it had just changed for Magento 1.8 but this simple fixed solved the problem.