Coyle and Pinkerton identify gaps in the care leaving system in Northern Ireland regarding social work training and meeting the challenges of transitioning from care. The primary focus of this article is to provide a perspective of care and leaving care which could contribute to social work education and practice in these areas. Framed within a…

Current federal legislation identifies three goals for the child welfare system: safety, permanence, and family and child well-being. Unfortunately, child well-being becomes subordinate to the more easily achievable and measurable goal of permanence--returning children to the biological family, facilitating an adoption, or placing them with…

Discusses issues related to measuring outcomes of social-work interventions with children. Emphasizes the need for regular, carefully timed assessments. Argues that approach and perspective differences obscure relationships between program and child outcomes and that assessing family-services outcomes raises accountability questions. Suggests that…

Explores licensing of out-of-home care as nonservice protective approach to child welfare distinguished from placement protective services. Discusses individual and role conflicts in relation to common goals of community protection of vulnerable children. Reviews administrative and organizational issues in light of assuring consistent and uniform…

Introduces theme issue on assessing outcomes in children's services, based on presentations given at a conference in September 1997. Articles in Part 1 deal with assessing outcomes for services to all children in need. Articles in Part 2 focus on initiatives in Britain and elsewhere related to the Looking After Children project, dealing with…

Discusses homosexuality, homosexual adolescents in out-of-home care settings, and factors that can help make placement in residential facilities a more positive experience for homosexual adolescents. (HTH)

Presents an ecological model identifying four factors: the child, caregivers, facility environment; and exogenous factors contributing to child maltreatment in residential care. Facility factors include organizational culture and staffing patterns. Caregiver factors include gender, age, training, and status. Child factors include gender, age, and…