A critical and evidence-based review of current and future child protection policy and practice.

• Provides evidence-based perspective with an up-to-date overview of policy and practice
• Covers several disciplinary boundaries
• Goes beyond mere description to enable engagement in critical analysis of various policy areas as they relate to children and families

Karen Broadhurst is a lecturer in Applied Social Science in the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University. With a professional background in social work practice, she has a keen interest in how policy and legislative changes impact on the front-line delivery of services. She has a particular interest in qualitative research, including the ethnographic study of everyday practice. Her work is published in a range of national and international journals.

Chris Grover is a senior lecturer in Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University. His main research interests and his recent journal publications concern various aspects of social security policy, including income replacement benefits for sick and/or disabled people, social assistance for low paid workers, and loaning social security payments. His most recent publication is Crime and Inequality (2008).

Janet Jamieson is a senior lecturer in Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University. Her teaching, research and publications primarily focus on youth justice, young people and crime, and gender and the criminal justice system. She is the co-editor of Gender and Crime: A Reader (2008).