Approaches to Needs Assessment in Children's Services

Whilst at NCB, Dr Ruth Sinclair developed and managed the extensive research and evaluation programme of NCB. Ruth has many years experience in conducting research on and with children. She has a particular interest in children in public care or in receipt of social care. She is also interested in developing child-centred research approaches that include the views and perspectives of children and involves them as widely as possible in all stages of the research process. Wendy Rose is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK, and works on national and international child welfare research and development projects. She was previously a senior civil servant advising the government on children's policy.

In such a compendium it is inevitable that different readers will find some chapters more relevant than others, but practitioners and managers should be encouraged to read beyond their specific interests as each chapter throws up thought-provoking and challenging ideas with material enough to provide a perspective from which to view the sufficiency of their own, and of their agency's practice... This book should also find a ready audience in the PQ in Child Care programmes and in the teaching of the new BA in Social Work as not the least of its merits are the clarity of the writing, the helpful chapter summaries and the comprehensive nature of its references.

• Foreword. 1. Introduction, Harriet Ward, Loughborough University. Part 1: Assessing the Needs of Populations of Children 2. Towards Social Inclusion. Can Childhood Disadvantages be overcome?, Robert Page, University of Birmingham. 3. A Framework for Conceptualizing Need and its Application to Planning and Providing Services, Pauline Hardiker, University of Leicester. 4. Needs-led or Needs Must? The Use of Needs-Based Information in Planning Children's Services, Mike Pinnock, North Lincolnshire Social Services and Louise Garnett, The Community Care Needs Assessment Project, South Humber Health Authority. 5. Matching Needs and Services. Emerging Themes from its Application in Different Social Care Settings, Jo Tunnard, Dartington Social Research Unit. 6. Developing a Taxonomy for Children in Need, Ruth Sinclair, National Children's Bureau and Michael Little, Dartington Social Research Unit. 7. Evolution not Revolution: Family Support Services and the Children Act 1989, Jane Aldgate, The Open University. Part 2: Assessing the Needs of Individual Children 8. National Policy on Assessing Children in Need and their Families, Jenny Gray, Department of Health. 9. Underpinning Theories for the Assessment of Children's Needs, Janet Seden, The Open University. 10. An Inter-Agency Approach to Needs Assessment, Harriet Ward, Loughborough University and Mark Peal, The Open University. 11. Addressing Family Needs when a Parent is Mentally Ill, Adrian Falkov, Luton Family Consultation Clinic. 12. Assessing Children's Needs and Parents' Responses, Hedy Cleaver, Royal Holloway College, University of London. 13. Assessing Emotional and Behavioural Development in Children Looked After Away from Home David Quinton, University of Bristol and Clare Murray, City University. 14. Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: Issues for Policy and Practice, Wendy Rose, The Open University. References. Index.