This text addresses the present concerns as expressed by Government bodies and central Government enquiries regarding the services and policies relating to children in need of care and attention. It deals with social care issues within the UK, including some specific Scottish and Irish child welfare. The text discusses the development of children's service plans, operationalisation of recent child care legislation, use of live video links with child witnesses and management of the transition of young people with disabilities from childhood to adulthood. The text also analyses the results of a long term, follow-up study of 20 years' duration of failure-to-thrive children. It puts forward recommendations for influencing future policy and practice in child care.

Table of Contents:
1. Issues Emerging from Child Care Research: Post-implementation of the Children Act (1989) Dorota Iwaniec, Queens University of Belfast and Malcolm Hill, University of Glasgow. 2. The Legal and Policy Context for Children's Services in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Angus Skinner, Social Work Services Inspectorate, Scotland and Kevin McCoy, Social Services Inspectorate, Belfast. 3. Communication, Co-operation or Collaboration? The Involvement of Voluntary Organisations in the First Scottish Children's Services Plans, Kay Tisdall, University of Edinburgh, Bernadette Monaghan, SACRO, Edinburgh and Malcolm Hill, University of Glasgow. 4. Operationalising the Definition of Children in Need from UK Child Care Legislation, Patrick McCrystal, The Queen's University of Belfast. 5. Needs-based Planning for Family and Child Care Services in Northern Ireland: Problems and Possibilities, Andrew Percy, The Queen's University of Belfast. 6. Understanding and Developing Family Support in Northern Ireland: The Challenge to Policy, Practice and Research, Kathryn Higgins, The Queen's University of Belfast. 7. Making Progress? The Transition to Adulthood for Disabled Young People in Northern Ireland, Marina Monteith, The Queen's University of Belfast. 8. The Looking After Children Records System: An Evaluation of the Scottish Pilot, Suzanne Wheelaghan and Malcolm Hill, University of Glasgow. 9. Educating Accommodated Children, Moira Borland, University of Glasgow. 10. Confusion and Perceptions: Social Work Conceptions Regarding Black Children in Scotland, Satnam Singh, Vijay Patel and Patricia Falconer, Barnardo's Scotland. 11. From Childhood to Adulthood: The Outcomes of a Twenty-Year Follow-up of Children who Failed to Thrive, Dorota Iwaniec, The Queen's University of Belfast. 12. Visual Signal in Child-Child and Adult-Child Communication: Implications for the Use of the Live Link with Child Witnesses, Gywneth Doherty-Sneddon, University of Stirling, Sandra McAuley and Ozlem Carrera. 13. Law, Policy, Practice and Research in Child and Family Social Work, Malcolm Hill, University of Glasgow and Dorota Iwaniec, The Queen's University of Belfast. The Contributors. References. Subject Index. Author Index.