Examining the assessment of need in children's services this book addresses the full spectrum of practice, policy and research developments in the field. The contributors show how needs assessment in children's services can be used to tackle problems such as low achievement, and social exclusion at both individual and strategic levels.

This book explores what elected members, social services and education departments can do to help children stay in school.

This ebook illustrates the day to day work of providing social services to adolescents: it describes the context of that task, its complexities, it's limitations, some of its successes and failings. More specifically it focuses on the role of assessment as part of the social work process, comparing specialist assessments with those undertaken routinely by district-based social workers.

In England and Wales, the Children Act 1989 introduced a comprehensive regulatory framework for planning and reviewing the care of young people who are looked after by local authorities. Planning to Care examines how the quality and effectiveness of planning practice in both rural and urban settings was reshaped, drawing on the views of young people and their parents as well as practitioners. The book evaluates the outcomes of the Children Act's 'regulatory strategy' and makes recommendations for improvements. This ebook will an invaluable reference for social workers, teachers, health professionals and policy makers concerned with children, as well as anyone wishing to assess the effects of statutor regulation upon social care.

An evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, which aims to support a small number of local authorities in deploying a range of policies to improve the educational achievements of looked after children.

This book presents the results a a two-day consultation with children and parents from 19 countries. "How would you define positive parenting? What characterises negative parenting? How does smacking make children feel? What does it teach them? What are the alternatives to smacking?". Exercises and questions that children and parents addressed on this occasion are presented in this publication and could be used in other similar consultations in the member states.