This collection of papers is intended to outline some of the strategies which have been adopted in response to the discrediting and virtual destruction of residential child care in the UK over the last 30 years. This undermining of residential practice, as we know, has come both from within the sector, through the infiltration of the field by paedophiles and other abusive individuals and groups, and from without, by those who have reacted to the problems by trying to do without residential provision altogether, and who have had the effect of further undermining an already demoralised and under-funded resource. It has been an awful period in our collective social history, and it is not over yet, as the full story remains to be told. There are still 32 police enquiries into allegations of abusive or neglectful regimes throughout the UK.

The papers in this volume represent a response from the field, in which a number of practitioners, administrators and managers give their own account of how they have tried to move forward into better practice. It is inevitably a somewhat patchy story - training initiatives here, safe houses there - but it is an encouraging one, and I applaud the publication of this collection wholeheartedly. Out of developments such as these something even greater may yet grow. And yet what remains most powerful of all, of course, is the voice of the young people themselves. In Chapter 8, two care leavers are interviewed about their experiences in the care system, and yet again these are stories full of disappointment, confusion and hurt. They do have some good words for some of their carers - one of these young people refers to the staff as 'quite friendly and reasonably understanding' (p.104) - but the overall picture is of a system which is still not geared to providing high quality care and support for troubled and confused young people.

In Chapter 3 there is an encouraging account from Lewisham of an attempt to re-introduce residential care in a borough which had previously closed its children's homes following abuse and scandals. This account rings very true, in that despite the careful planning and investment in the new home, with great care taken over appointing, supporting and training staff, there were still enormous problems to manage in terms of others' expectations. There was real difficulty in 'getting all parts of the organisation to own the statement of purpose, in order to make it a common purpose'(p.39), and the home was put under great pressure to accept inappropriate emergency referrals. The authors of this chapter reflect somewhat sorely on their experience, but I hope they can retain some belief in what they are doing and some optimism about what they can achieve. As I read this chapter I wondered whether the authors were in touch with others around the country who are trying some thing similar, just as I wondered whether the valiant efforts to provide staff training in Liverpool have been able to draw support from others trying to achieve similar things.

As one who has been trying for some years to provide staff training in this field I suppose it was inevitable that the discussion on training would leap out at me. In his chapter 'Things can only get better' David Crimmens offers an exceptionally useful account of developments in this field since the publication of the Pindown Report (Levy and Kahan, 1991), covering the short-lived Residential Child Care Initiative (RCCI), as well as the emergence of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). He acknowledges the criticisms which have been levelled at the whole NVQ framework, but gives an even-handed account of one local authority's attempts to provide staff training and development based on NVQs. It does appear that the national picture of NVQs in this field is problematic, with completion rates in some areas very low. Crimmens also acknowledges that 'NVQ is only a beginning and will never provide the sufficiently comprehensive approach implied in government policy' (p.92). Indeed, we have to be very careful to watch for Government 'Spin' in this area, as one of the first responses to the Waterhouse recommendation that 'suitable specialist training in child care at post-qualifying level should be made widely available' was the claim that the new PQ Child Care awards would offer such training, when the reality is that these awards are primarily geared to the needs of field social workers rather than to those of residential staff. There remains a very long way to go in terms of training in this field, and it was encouraging to find that when this book was launched at an NCB conference in March, so many people were questioning the adequacy of the current over-reliance on NVQs.

There are many other useful chapters in this book - Carolyne Willow on the challenge of promoting Children's Rights in residential care, and a report of some timely research into the Complaints System by Nick Frost and Lorraine Wallis. David Lane remains as admirably upbeat as ever in his 'Obvious Messages for a Safe Workforce', and this field certainly needs people like David to remind us that it is worth persevering. When we read first-hand accounts by young people in the care system, such as those reported in this book, it is easy to get down-hearted, or to retreat into the sort of negativism which characterised the eighties and nineties. But what is really needed is for enough of us to get together, learn about what each other is doing, join with these young people and put pressure on the right parts of the system, to make some real changes. This heartening book is a great start, and things can indeed only get better.

Adrian Ward
Senior Lecturer in Social Work
University of Reading.

Reference
Levy. A. and Kahan, B. (1991) The Pindown Experience and the Protection of Children: the Report of the Staffordshire Child Care Inquiry 1990, Staf

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