Exploring concepts of child well-being : implications for children's services

Defining child well-being. Need -- Rights -- Poverty -- Quality of life -- Social exclusion -- Relationships between the concepts -- Measuring child well-being -- Child well-being through different lenses -- Relationships between the conditions -- Implications for children's services -- Matching conditions and service styles -- Developing congruent children's services.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Policy reforms to children's services in the UK and elsewhere encourage a greater focus on outcomes defined in terms of child well-being. Yet for this to happen, we need not only a better understanding of what child well-being is and how services can improve it, but also the ability to measure child well-being in order to evaluate success. This book investigates the main approaches to conceptualising child well-being, applies them to the child population using household survey and agency audit data, then considers the implications for children's services.The author: provides a clear conceptual understanding of five definitions of well-being: need, rights, poverty, quality of life and social exclusion; demonstrates the value of each perspective; charts levels of child well-being in an inner-London community, including violated rights and social exclusion; sets out the features that children's services must have if they are to improve child well-being defined in these terms. This book should be read by everyone involved in developing, implementing and evaluating children's services, including researchers, policy makers and practitioners.