The delivery of effective family support is a key global child welfare issue, yet there is little consensus on what constitutes family support or what the best ways are to evaluate it.

Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically offers a full review of the conceptual and operational problems involved in this complex and topical field.

Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton have brought together a team of experienced child care policy analysts and evaluators to present the current state of critical thinking alongside detailed international case studies. The...

Recent government initiatives and developments in professional practice have been designed to help families in difficulty effectively, in order to prevent child harm. This book examines whether these changes have worked, by examining a large scale study conducted by the NSPCC and drawing out the main messages for practice and future policy.

The research findings are set out in terms of children's and families' needs and expectations, agency interventions and outcomes, community context, measures and perceived changes over time.

Highly topical - national priority...

This important volume explores children s needs in the context of the policy, practice, legal and organisational responses to child sexual abuse. The chapters, written by distinguished experts in the field, provide a critical appraisal of recent developments and key debates concerning how to respond to child sexual abuse. The emphasis is on keeping the child central in responding to child sexual abuse, particularly in the context of refocusing children s services . The book is organised around a series of themes identified by survivors of sexual abuse from the National Commission into the...

The system of representation where children and young people are provided with both a social work guardian ad litem and a specialist solicitor is widely regarded as a model of excellence. However, until now, information about the system and its advantages has tended to neglect the views and experiences of the children concerned. Based on a unique research study, Out of Hearing investigates the representation service from the child s perspective. Observations of representatives meetings with their child clients and separate interviews with the children and their representatives paint a...