First published in 1999, this timely and challenging volume assesses children’s residential services in the UK in the wake of the Residential Provision and the Children Act, 1989, using extensive interviews with providers of residential therapeutic services. A difficult task in any circumstances, issues discussed, with telling and convincing detail, include the financial difficulties of these services, staff morale, which children have need of residential services, the effects of policy reform, rates of emotional and behavioural disorders, the costs of services and long-term therapeutic units. This exemplary study is comparable to Sir William Utting’s 1997 report,
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, adding new dimensions and insights to the current debate. It should be widely read and discussed by policy makers and practitioners concerned with child care and protection.