Changing children's services: working and learning together focuses on the on-going and fundamental changes to children's services across the U.K. in the context of the drive towards increasingly integrated ways of working. The new edition of this bestselling textbook critically examines the potential and reality of closer 'working together' and asks whether such new ways of working will be able to respond more effectively to the needs and aspirations of children and their families. The fully updated second edition also explores the experience of working in a constantly changing environment and the impact of change on workplace cultures and on children and their families, and policy towards parenting and concepts for practice. It includes a new introduction with a helpful overview of current key issues and new case studies to illustrate the reality of practice today . This book contributes to crucial debates about the knowledge and skills essential for work with children and with parents in the childcare, health, social care and educational children's services.

Social work practice with children, young people and families is complex, highly skilled - and fascinating. Writing about social work increasingly acknowledges the complexities and uncertainties of practice but rarely features the voice of the social worker themselves. This book takes a different approach, that of Critical Best Practice: a constructive, realistic and strengths-based approach that takes as its starting point the telling and analysing of in depth stories about 'live' practice. The reader is encouraged to join the social work practitioner or manager as they engage with the everyday dilemmas and uncertainties of 21st century practice. Ten narratives, based round the themes of relationships, risk, and negotiation & problem solving provide varied opportunities for critical reflection and learning about social work in different contexts. Insights are offered into social work with children, from young babies to adolescents, and families with differing needs in different parts of the UK: England, Scotland and Wales.