Residential Child Care in Practice: Making a Difference

Description

Written by experienced practitioners and academics, this is a core text about the practice of residential child care. It takes as its starting point the fact that residential child care involves workers and children sharing a common lifespace, in which the quality of interpersonal relationships is key. Each chapter highlights relevant policy guidance and is developed around a practice scenario, discussing key knowledge skills and values relating to its theme. This highly practical book should, therefore, be of value to a range of students at different academic levels, from VQ to Masters, and to practitioners and managers in residential child care. The book draws on ideas from child and youth care and social pedagogic traditions and will appeal to a worldwide audience and provides a valuable addition to the emerging literature around social pedagogy.

Mark Smith worked in residential schools and homes for 20 years before moving to university teaching. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh Dr Leon Fulcher has practiced in and taught residential child care across different continents for over 40 years. He is currently Chair of the International Child and Youth Care Network at www.cyc-net.org. Peter Doran recently retired as CEO of a residential school in Scotland, having spent his career in residential child care. Since retiring he has undertaken work for The Scottish Government on the education of children with complex support needs.

"This book is a gem. It addresses what should be at the centre of residential practice - personalised caring relationships which develop a youngster's sense of self worth." Gill Raja, Lecturer in Social Work at UNIMAS in Malaysia "In my opinion this is the best text book about residential child care for a very long time." David Lane, www.childrenwebmag.com "This book highlights and provides insight into the core values of the field ... This book can help those on the front line, social workers, managers and executives take a hard look at what they are doing and challenge them all to think just a little bit differently." Okpara Rice, Executive Director, Starr Commonwealth - Columbus, Ohio "This is exactly the sort of book that should be required reading for all practitioners and policy makers in the field ... It is the first book that I will be reaching for from now on, quite simply a classic text in the making." Jeremy Millar, Robert Gordon University