This is a book about social work practice with children and families. As such it is one of many, and as many do, it focuses on the elusive but necessary search for effective practice. But what distinguishes this volume from others is that it is based on assessed work submitted on a postqualifying programme which aimed to develop the practice skills of experienced social workers. It is thus illustrative of the actual dilemmas, struggles and rewards of practice in the late 1990s. The work is mostly drawn from the statutory sector.

The format adopted mirrors the process of the programme, where the rigours and realities of practice entered vividly into the classroom, not solely as illustration or even anecdote, but as the true fabric of learning. When the practice accounts were read and the research analysed it was the users, and particularly the young users, of services who were the pivot of attention. And it is the users who are central to this book. The course members who worked with them present here their attempts to intervene helpfully. This work in turn is analysed by four independent commentators.

I will outline the programme, state how this book came about in the form it has, comment on its intended usefulness and then go on to discuss some themes of contemporary relevance.

The Programme

The Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Social Work (Children and Families) was set up in 1983 at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where a well-regarded one-year postgraduate CQSW course was already established. The Programme came about from a shared concern in the multi-disciplinary education committee of British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) about current standards of social work practice. The roots of this Programme were therefore in practice; they were interdisciplinary (law, medicine, child psychiatry, as well as social work); and they were about raising standards. These themes remained constant throughout the 14 years of the Programme's existence. The people involved remained constant also, most notably two members of that education committee, Margaret Adcock and Richard White, whose teaching was central to the curriculum.