The Winter edition of the Journal of Children's Services is out now!

The journal is edited by the Social Research Unit, a quarterly designed to encourage the development of research-based, outcome-focused services to better safeguard and promote the well-being of vulnerable children and their families.

Sarah Stewart-Brown and her colleagues highlight the limitations of randomised controlled trials in preventive settings, arguing that this calls into question their privileged status in terms of research evidence. The editors, Michael Little and Nick Axford, welcome the article as the starting shot of a debate within the pages of the journal on the place and value of RCTs in children's services.
 
The edition also contains two important overviews of research - one by June Thoburn and Mark Courtney on children in out-of-home care, and one by Mavis Maclean and Emily Buss on the law and child development in the UK and US. Further information about the JCS can be found at: www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=jcs