Although workers and scholars concerned with the evolution of child welfare services have general hunches about the forces influencing the directions of service development, they have not had available to them any systematic data to verify or correct their impressions. This article attempts to provide a basis for making judgments about the recent…

This speech presents an overview of issues and trends in the provision of foster care and adoption services in Canada. The number of children "in care" in Canada (in foster homes, institutions, or adoptive homes) appears to have peaked around 1969 and declined thereafter. Information on contraceptives and the availaibility of abortions…