Improving the well-being of children is more effective when social care professionals work with the children's parents, families and communities. This collection brings together innovative interventions designed to nurture children's health and welfare, and analyses which types of programmes are most effective and why.

The contributors explore the impact of poverty on children's development and assess national initiatives set up to assess and reduce need. They present examples from the UK, US, Canada and Australia of specific interventions to counter or prevent difficulties in the domains of child development, parenting capacity and wider environmental factors. Many contributions demonstrate the importance of engaging with service users and helping communities to shape and direct their own programmes for change. The final section of the book presents useful approaches to assessing and evaluating services.

Demonstrating the need for close inter-agency collaboration and `joined up' services, this book is essential reading for policy makers, managers and practitioners in child welfare agencies, and social work academics and students.

Foreword, Maria Eagle MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families. Preface. 1. Safeguarding and Promoting the Well-being of Children, Families and their Communities, Harriet Ward and Jane Scott, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University. Part I: Evidence of Need. 2. Promoting the Health and Well-being of Children: Evidence of Need in the UK, Fran Bennet, Oxford University. 3. Policies in the UK to Promote the Well-being of Children, Gillian Pugh, Coram Families. 4. The Impact of US Welfare Reform on Children's Well-being, Anthony Bibus, Rosemary Link and Michael O'Neal, Augsburg College, Minnesota. Part II: Effective Interventions to Promote Children's Health and Well-being. 5. Support Teams for Adolescents, Nina Biehal, University of York. 6. Catching Children as they Fall: The East Dunbartonshire Looked After Children Mental Health Project, Michael van Bienum, Andy Martin, East Dunbartonshire Council and Chris Bonnett, MRC Social and Public Health Services Unit, Glasgow. 7. Promoting the Health and Well-being of Indigenous Minority Children in Canada and Australia, Richard Budgell, Government of Canada, Mike Clare, The University of Western Australia,Jennifer Noonan, social worker, and Lynn Robertson, Health Canada. 8. Better than Being at Home: Disabled Children's Views about School, Clare Connors, Durham University, UK, and Kirsten Stalker, University of Stirling, UK. 9. The Voice of Young People: Reflections on the Care Experience and the Process of Leaving Care, Kathleen Kufeldt, University of New Brunswick, Canada, and Mike Stein, University of York, UK. Part III: Promoting the Well-being of Vulnerable Families. 10. Themes from a UK Research Initiative on Supporting Parents, David Quinton, University of Bristol, UK. 11. The Canada Prenatal Nutrition Programme and Breaking the Cycle: A Nation's Response to Programming for its Most Vulnerable Citizens, Judy Watson, Health Canada and Margaret Leslie, Mothercraft and Breaking the Cycle, Canada. 12. Promoting the Well-being of Children and Families: What is Best Practice?, Geoffrey Nelson, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. 13. Shared Family Care: Child Protection and Family Preservation in Action, Richard Barth, University of North Carolina, US, and Amy Price, University of California at Berkeley, US. Part IV: Promoting the Well-being of Vulnerable Communities. 14. Housing Issues in Child Welfare: A Practice Response with Service and Policy Implications, Bruce Leslie, Children's Aid Society of Toronto, Canada. 15. Searching for Impacts of a Community-based Initiative. The Evaluation of 1,2,3 GO! Camil Bouchard, National Assembly Quebec, Canada. Part V Conclusion. 16. Dude, Where's My Outcomes? Partnership Working and Outcome-based Accountability in the United Kingdom Mark Friedman, Fiscal Policies Studies Institute, Santa Fe, Louise Garnett and Mike Pinnock, North Lincolnshire Council UK. 17. Evaluating Interventions and Monitoring Outcomes, Jane Scott Loughborough University, UK, Terry Moore, University of Kansas, US, and Harriet Ward, Loughborough University, UK. Glossary. References. The Contributors. Subject Index. Author Index.