Edited by Mono Chakrabarti and Malcolm Hill

Jessica Kingsley

£15.95

ISBN 1 85302 687 5

Anyone who has visited a children's home or secure unit will know that family relationships, however difficult, are of huge importance to the lives of children who live in these settings.

Based on papers first presented an international conference held in Glasgow in 1996, this book examines ways in which children's family and peer relationships can be strengthened and developed - either to prevent entry into the care system, or while the child is living in residential accommodation. Although many encouraging changes have taken place in this area of practice, there is plenty of scope for further improvement.

The opening two chapters provide an overview of current trends in residential care and an examination of the theoretical issues regarding the relationship between families and a child in residential accommodation.

Subsequent chapters offer research findings and descriptions of related areas of practice in Scotland, Australia, Canada, Israel and the US.

To the extent that western and English-speaking nations predominate it might be questioned whether the book is "international", although the common trends in child care in most of these countries does make for easier comparison and the exchange of practice messages. There are good descriptions of the different policy and practice contexts in which these issues are being addressed, thus permitting some assessment of which elements might be applied to other settings.

Specific issues covered include work with reconstituted families, the role of siblings and processes of reunification. The consideration of significant relationships beyond the child's parents is useful.

While a number of alternative theoretical approaches are described, common to all chapters is the recognition that while family and peer relationships may be strained and in some cases contact will be very limited indeed, ultimately those relationships will prove more enduring than most of those formed in the residential setting.

Although the importance of family relationships has increasingly been recognised in research and practice, the literature on residential child care often focuses on the residential institution. This book provides a refreshing contrast.

Isabelle Brodie is research fellow, department of applied social studies, University of Luton and is co-author of Children's Homes Revisited (Jessica Kingsley, 1998)