First published in 1999, The Management of Child Protection Services is not about child abuse but about child protection. It is about the arrangements that professionals from different disciplines make to ensure they operate together effectively to protect the most vulnerable children in society. The book examines five different contexts of child protection: historical, cross-cultural, structural, managerial and professional and consideration of the operation of Area Child Protection Committees. In exploring these contexts, the book seeks to address such questions as: 'how can universal standards be applied to protect vulnerable children whilst avoiding ethnocentrism?' and 'from where are derived, historically, and cross-culturally, the models of child protection adopted in the UK today?' It also seeks to identify the different professional contexts, roles and contributions of agencies involved in child protection, with a view to promoting interdisciplinary understanding. These questions and understandings are necessary if changes currently being contemplated are to enhance the effectiveness of child protection.

First published in 1997. Area Child Protection Committees are at the heart of interagency child protection services in Britain. Drawing on original research, this book provides the first detailed analysis of ACPs and how they operate. The authors examine the policy role of the committees, the processes of representation, and the effectiveness of the committees' work both in directing practice and in responding to change. They also report on research into how ACPCs deal with cases that go wrong. The book considers the impact both of agency reorganisation and of changes in child care policy on the work of the committees, and includes an account of the development of children's service plans. If child protection policy is to change its direction, then ACPCs will have to change too. This book aims to contribute to an understanding of how that can happen.

First published in 1999, The Management of Child Protection Services is not about child abuse but about child protection. It is about the arrangements that professionals from different disciplines make to ensure they operate together effectively to protect the most vulnerable children in society. The book examines five different contexts of child protection: historical, cross-cultural, structural, managerial and professional and consideration of the operation of Area Child Protection Committees. In exploring these contexts, the book seeks to address such questions as: 'how can universal standards be applied to protect vulnerable children whilst avoiding ethnocentrism?' and 'from where are derived, historically, and cross-culturally, the models of child protection adopted in the UK today?' It also seeks to identify the different professional contexts, roles and contributions of agencies involved in child protection, with a view to promoting interdisciplinary understanding. These questions and understandings are necessary if changes currently being contemplated are to enhance the effectiveness of child protection.

First published in 1997. Area Child Protection Committees are at the heart of interagency child protection services in Britain. Drawing on original research, this book provides the first detailed analysis of ACPs and how they operate. The authors examine the policy role of the committees, the processes of representation, and the effectiveness of the committees' work both in directing practice and in responding to change. They also report on research into how ACPCs deal with cases that go wrong. The book considers the impact both of agency reorganisation and of changes in child care policy on the work of the committees, and includes an account of the development of children's service plans. If child protection policy is to change its direction, then ACPCs will have to change too. This book aims to contribute to an understanding of how that can happen.