Focusing on good working practice in all aspects of conducting enquiries into alleged child abuse, this book takes a positive approach to improving relationships between the workers and the families involved. Each chapter concentrates on a specific issue, including topics such as gatekeeping, planning an enquiry, interviewing children, medical examinations, and recorded agreements. Practice, research, and procedures are examined critically, from a perspective which emphasises the importance of partnership with children and families. This book is essential reading for social services practitioners and managers, voluntary organisations and all concerned with the current debate about the role of enquiries into alleged child abuse and neglect. This book forms part of a re-examination of enquiries into alleged child abuse managed jointly by the National Institute for Social Work, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Parents Against INjustice.

DENDY PLATT is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at New College Durham and David Shemmings is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of East Anglia