Drawing on unique access to prominent policy makers including ministers, senior civil servants, local authority directors, and the leaders of children's sector NGOs, Purcell re-examines two decades of children's services reform under both Labour and Conservative-led governments.
By closely examining the origins of Labour's Every Child Matters programme, the Munro Review, and more recent Conservative reforms affecting child and family social workers, the impacts of high profile child abuse cases, including Victoria Climbie and Baby P, are reassessed and the party-political drivers of successive waves of reform are revealed.
