Harriet Ward – författare

Improving the well-being of children is more effective when social care professionals work with the children's parents, families and communities. This collection brings together innovative interventions designed to nurture children's health and welfare, and analyses which types of programmes are most effective and why.The contributors explore the impact of poverty on children's development and assess national initiatives set up to assess and reduce need. They present examples from the UK, US, Canada and Australia of specific interventions to counter or prevent difficulties in the domains of child development, parenting capacity and wider environmental factors. Many contributions demonstrate the importance of engaging with service users and helping communities to shape and direct their own programmes for change. The final section of the book presents useful approaches to assessing and evaluating services.Demonstrating the need for close inter-agency collaboration and `joined up' services, this book is essential reading for policy makers, managers and practitioners in child welfare agencies, and social work academics and students.

Babies and very young children in care often experience several changes of placement and carer, which can have a negative impact upon their long-term ability to develop secure attachments.Babies and Young Children in Care examines why babies enter care or accommodation and why securing their long-term future can be a lengthy process. It analyses the circumstances, characteristics and experiences of these young children before, during and after being looked after, including reasons for changes of carer and placement disruptions. It looks at how young children are affected by the lack of stability in their lives, and explores the consequences of reunification with their parents after long periods in care. Drawing on interviews with birth parents, carers and social care professionals, the authors trace the complex decision-making process that influences these children's early experiences and the impact this has on their later development and well-being. They offer a clear explanation of the outcomes of services for very young children and signpost messages for practice.This book is a key text for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and social care managers.

It costs more to place a child in the care of a local authority than it does to send a child to a top boarding school, and there are substantial variations in costs both between and within authorities.This book gets to the bottom of the costs of care and provides an insight into how these variations in cost relate to differences in children's needs, and most importantly, whether higher costs reflect better services and better outcomes for children.Costs and Consequences for Children Placed Away from Home draws from new original research, and considers the implications for best practice and future policy. It also features information about a newly pioneered resource: a fully workable decision analysis model designed for use in local authorities which uses historical data for each child to calculate the probable cost consequences of difference placement choices.This book sheds light on how to calculate the financial and social costs of care, and will be invaluable to both social work managers and policy makers working in children's services.

The Integrated Children's System (ICS) was developed to support effective practice with children and families and improve decision making and planning for children in need. This book outlines what the ICS is and how it works, and assesses the effectiveness of a number of pilot studies, offering guidance for others using and implementing the system, which is being rolled out nationally. Part of the Government's long term programme to improve outcomes and life chances for children, the system provides a more structured and systematic approach by integrating the processes of working with children in need from the point of first contact through to the final review. The Integrated Children's System is vital reading for policymakers, social care managers, social care practitioners and those responsible for implementing the system.

Safeguarding Children Across Services brings together the latest evidence on safeguarding children from abuse and neglect. Providing an overview of 15 research projects, it addresses the key policy and practice issues across health, social care and education services and the family justice system.The authors set out the latest findings on identification of abuse and neglect, methods of prevention, general interventions, and specific interventions for families with additional or complex needs. They examine the evidence on effective inter-agency practice and how it can be improved. Each chapter ends with principal messages for policy and practice.Providing a critical account of policy, systems and practice, this book is essential reading for anyone who needs the latest guidance in relation to safeguarding children, including policymakers, social workers, professionals in health care and the family justice system and other practitioners working with children.

Safeguarding babies and very young children is a highly complex process, involving difficult decisions surrounding their needs, care, and whether they need to be separated from their families.This book, based on a research study which followed babies who were identified as likely to suffer significant harm before their first birthdays until they were three years old, explores key issues surrounding the safeguarding process. These include how the decision whether to remove children from their families are made, whether social work interventions work and the impact they have on children's life pathways. It also examines the role various participants, including parents, have in decision-making. The findings of the study show a close link between decisions, maltreatment and children's developmental problems, and provide key implications and recommendations for policy and practice.This significant book will be essential reading for all those involved in safeguarding children, including practitioners and policymakers, academics and researchers.

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 include leading academics, policy makers and senior practitioners who generate a broad-based holistic approach to the assessment of children in need. They show how needs assessment in children's services can be used to tackle problems such as low achievement, mental ill-health and social exclusion at both individual and strategic levels.Approaches to the Assessment of Need in Children's Services will enable service managers and practitioners to respond effectively to the increasing pressure to monitor outcomes and effectiveness in child care work, and to improve and coordinate children's welfare service provision at individual and community levels and provides an indispensable overview and analysis for anyone working or studying in child welfare and social care.

This Open Access book presents unique evidence from the first comprehensive study of the outcomes of open adoption from care in Australia.

This Open Access book presents unique evidence from the first comprehensive study of the outcomes of open adoption from care in Australia.