Improving Outcomes for Children and Families: Finding and Using International Evidence

Significant amounts of money and resources are spent on child and family services, so successful evaluation of whether or not they are achieving the best outcomes is therefore essential.

This edited collection offers an international perspective on the challenges of designing and undertaking outcome-based evaluation of child and family services. With contributions from leading international experts, it introduces the key ideas and issues currently being debated in the evaluation of these services; discusses relevant approaches to designing and using evaluation methods; and provides examples of evaluation from the real world of policy and practice. Issues covered include setting appropriate indicators for service effectiveness, cross-cultural evaluation of service interventions, service user involvement in evaluation, and evaluations of family and community-based services.

This invaluable book will be essential reading for policy makers, planners, commissioners and managers across child and family welfare services, as well as researchers and other academics in the field.

Robyn Munford is Head of the School of Sociology, Social Work and Social Policy at Massey University. She has published widely on social and community work and disability studies, and her research on families has gained international recognition.

Professor Nina Biehal is Research Director at the Social Policy Research Unit of the University of York. She is leads work on vulnerable children, children in care and young people. Previously a social worker, Nina has been involved in child welfare research for many years. Her research interests focus particularly on social work with older children and adolescents. She has published widely on leaving care, runaways from care, family support and missing persons.

Wendy Rose is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK, and works on national and international child welfare research and development projects. She was previously a senior civil servant advising the government on children's policy.