Children living in transition: helping homeless and foster care children and families

Abstract

most of the chapters are alive and vibrant, reflecting contemporary challenges and concerns, and a weakness, because some chapters (the first, for example) are underreferenced and a little too chatty in style. The academic authors include many leading commentators in the field, who contributed well-written and analytical chapters that address many of the contemporary challenges of child protection in England. The chapters cover child sexual exploitation, early help and abuse of teenagers and children who go missing, for example. One strange omission is a consideration of the extensive patterns of abuse that have been recently uncovered involving celebrities, most notoriously the former disc jockey Jimmy Savile. It can be argued that these scandals have contributed to major shifts in our understanding of, and response to, child sexual abuse. The book as one particular advantage: written by people at the forefront of contemporary thinking and policy implementation, it focuses on many of today’s main challenges. That may, however, present the danger that when we have indeed ‘moved on from Munro’, and the child protection gaze has moved beyond the latest scandal, the book will seem dated rather quickly. In the meantime, the book offers a valuable insight into the operation of the child protection system and how services for our most vulnerable children can be improved.