This definitive textbook provides accessible information on best practice for assessing the needs and strengths of vulnerable children and their families. It explores the challenges that practitioners face routinely - with suggestions as to how to address them - as well as the established areas for assessment, of children's developmental needs, parenting ability and motivation, and socio-economic factors. This new edition has been extended substantially to include recent practice, policy and theoretical developments, such as understanding the lived experience of children, young people, and family members. It also considers children's neurological development, assessing parental capacity to change, early help assessments, emerging areas of practice such as child sexual exploitation, and working with asylum-seeking and trafficked children. Crucially, this updated edition takes a broader approach in offering relevant information to a range of professionals working with vulnerable children. The importance of inter-professional working is emphasised throughout.

With contributions from internationally recognized experts, this edited volume presents original thinking on the theory, research and practice surrounding child neglect. Comprehensive and current, the book takes an expansive look at how we can better address this prevalent issue. It explores the effects of neglect on the developing child and makes recommendations on how to identify neglect at the earliest opportunity. It considers common causal and contributing factors in neglect cases and the impact of these on children. The book details effective intervention techniques alongside case vignettes and shows how change can be achieved. It highlights the importance of supporting parental care and developing parental responsibility in families where children are neglected. Chapters provide in-depth descriptive examples and include a summary of learning points. Including practical suggestions for combating child neglect, this is an essential guide to best practice for students and practitioners working with children and families. The book also contains useful insights relevant to researchers and policy makers.

Neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment in developed countries and it comes in many forms. This is the first book to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to the tasks of planning and intervention faced by professionals in cases of child neglect.
From evaluating the effects of neglect on the child to looking at root causes, this wide-ranging text offers evidence-based, practical guidance to support all practitioners in their work with neglected children. In particular:
- It assesses a range of methods of intervention and how these best apply to the various needs of different families.
- It explores the tensions and dilemmas that practitioners can face when working with neglected children.
- It demonstrates ways that practitioners can work together to promote better outcomes for the child.
- It provides conceptual frameworks, engaging case studies and reflective questions that can assist practitioners in their work.
Written by a leading authority on child neglect, this book is essential reading for those in contact with children and families irrespective of discipline or nation state. It will prove an invaluable resource for practitioners working with families where there are signs of child neglect as well as students studying and academics delivering courses in child welfare.
Jan Horwath is Professor of Child Welfare at the University of Sheffield. She is the author of many books on safeguarding children including "Child Neglect: Identification and Assessment."

"Effective Staff Training in Social Care" provides a theoretical framework for training and professional development, focusing on group learning in a social care context. It tackles the tensions and dilemmas of those engaged in training amidst a climate of change and a mixed economy of welfare and examines how these influence both the trainer and the learner.