Approaches to Needs Assessment in Children's Services

Examining the assessment of need in children's services this book addresses the full spectrum of practice, policy and research developments in the field. The contributors include leading academics, policy makers and senior practitioners who generate a broad-based holistic approach to the assessment of children in need. They show how needs assessment in children's services can be used to tackle problems such as low achievement, mental ill-health and social exclusion at both individual and strategic levels. Approaches to the Assessment of Need in Children's Services will enable service managers and practitioners to respond effectively to the increasing pressure to monitor outcomes and effectiveness in child care work, and to improve and coordinate children's welfare service provision at individual and community levels and provides an indispensable overview and analysis for anyone working or studying in child welfare and social care.

Table of Contents:
Foreword. 1. Introduction, Harriet Ward, Loughborough University. Part 1: Assessing the Needs of Populations of Children 2. Towards Social Inclusion. Can Childhood Disadvantages be overcome?, Robert Page, University of Birmingham. 3. A Framework for Conceptualizing Need and its Application to Planning and Providing Services, Pauline Hardiker, University of Leicester. 4. Needs-led or Needs Must? The Use of Needs-Based Information in Planning Children's Services, Mike Pinnock, North Lincolnshire Social Services and Louise Garnett, The Community Care Needs Assessment Project, South Humber Health Authority. 5. Matching Needs and Services. Emerging Themes from its Application in Different Social Care Settings, Jo Tunnard, Dartington Social Research Unit. 6. Developing a Taxonomy for Children in Need, Ruth Sinclair, National Children's Bureau and Michael Little, Dartington Social Research Unit. 7. Evolution not Revolution: Family Support Services and the Children Act 1989, Jane Aldgate, The Open University. Part 2: Assessing the Needs of Individual Children 8. National Policy on Assessing Children in Need and their Families, Jenny Gray, Department of Health. 9. Underpinning Theories for the Assessment of Children's Needs, Janet Seden, The Open University. 10. An Inter-Agency Approach to Needs Assessment, Harriet Ward, Loughborough University and Mark Peal, The Open University. 11. Addressing Family Needs when a Parent is Mentally Ill, Adrian Falkov, Luton Family Consultation Clinic. 12. Assessing Children's Needs and Parents' Responses, Hedy Cleaver, Royal Holloway College, University of London. 13. Assessing Emotional and Behavioural Development in Children Looked After Away from Home David Quinton, University of Bristol and Clare Murray, City University. 14. Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: Issues for Policy and Practice, Wendy Rose, The Open University. References. Index.

About the Author :
Harriet Ward is Director of the Centre for Child and Family Research and Senior Research Fellow at Loughborough University. She has undertaken extensive research in the field of assessing need and evaluating outcomes in children's services. Wendy Rose is Senior Fellow at the Open University. She is a policy maker who has taken a leading role in the development of children's services at a national level. Until recently she was assistant chief inspector for children's services at the Department of Health.

Review :
In such a compendium it is inevitable that different readers will find some chapters more relevant than others, but practitioners and managers should be encouraged to read beyond their specific interests as each chapter throws up thought-provoking and challenging ideas with material enough to provide a perspective from which to view the sufficiency of their own, and of their agency's practice... This book should also find a ready audience in the PQ in Child Care programmes and in the teaching of the new BA in Social Work as not the least of its merits are the clarity of the writing, the helpful chapter summaries and the comprehensive nature of its references. With its extensive and detailed frame of reference, this book is a timely addition to the demystification of the language and meaning of needs assessment in children services. I found the first section extremely simple and reader-friendly, but detailed enough to facilitate a grasp of its practical application and relevance to training and practice for social care professionals. The legal and historical background, along with the use of a number of frameworks across a variety of local authorities, is extremely helpful to those agencies, authorities and individuals who would like something to build on in relation to children's services planning. As a lecturer in Social Work, this is certainly a volume which I would encourage students and practitioners to read. This book is ambitious in its aspirations but succeeds in providing opportunities for those in the field of child welfare to consider carefully their practice, policies, procedures and future plans. This is an edited book with contributions from a wide range of practitioners and academics in the fields of child care and health... Approaches to Needs Assessment in Children's Services is an important contribution towards the development of integrated Children's Services, which envisage systems being in place in order to identify children in need, provide appropriate services and monitor outcomes. Practitioners will benefit from a broader view of the issues and this publication may well encourage them to become involved in policy developments. This is certainly a book worth recommending. 'A Lot of material in this book could be used to guide individual practice. This book has something for those who require deeper understanding of the assessment process in order to provide more effective services for children in need at community or individual levels'. The book is divided logically into two parts. The first looks at the population of children and both identification and analysis of their needs as the basis for service planning in the community. This book addresses the full spectrum of practice, policy and research developments in the field of needs assessment in children's services. Contributors from various fields show how needs assessment can be used to tackle problems such as low achievement, mental ill-health and social exclusion... This book provides an essential overview for those working or studying in the field of child welfare and social care.