media reviews : making sense of the children act. a guide for the social and welfare services (third...
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MEDIA REVIEWS
The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and
Adolescence by Jerome Kagan (Ed). Gale
Publishers, Detroit, 1998, 752 pages,
£76á00, ISBN 0 8103 9884 2.
The amount of child and adolescent
development-related information available
to professionals can be overwhelming and
sometimes con¯icting. This user-friendly
text is a complete compendium of child
development edited by an internationally
renowned researcher in child
development. Entries from foremost
experts in child development are included,
for example, T. Berry Brazelton. Written for
professionals in many ®elds, entries cover
comprehensively areas related to physical,
mental, social and moral development.
Content ranges from the conceptual such
as cognitive development to the most
practical, for example nail biting. The
organization of the book makes it easy to
locate items of interest. Entries are
alphabetically arranged. Each entry begins
with a de®nition of the term, for example
attribution theory. This is followed by a
summary of the topic. The length of each
entry varies from a short explanation to
more detailed information for complex
theories and concepts. Many entries
include a section for further study, listing
related references on the topic. There is
extensive use of tables and sidebars which
serve to highlight particularly important
information. This volume is destined to
become a classic. It is an extensive resource
with an indispensable wealth of informa-
tion. The contents can be used as a quick
reference as well as a guide to consult for
recommendations on further study. The
editor is to be commended on the
presentation of an enormous amount of
information and suggestions in such a
concise and readable form. The book would
be an excellent addition to the library of
faculty and advanced practice nurses
involved in the care of children. I would
highly recommend it as a reference for
every paediatric of®ce practice and patient
unit, as well as school of nursing libraries.
Jane H. Barnsteiner RN PhD FAAN
Professor of Paediatric Nursing
School of Nursing
University of Pennsylvania
and Director of Nursing Practice and
Research
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, USA
Making Sense of the Children Act. A Guide
for the Social and Welfare Services (third
edition) by Nick Allen. John Wiley and
Sons Ltd, Chichester, 1998, 284 pages,
£14á99, ISBN 0 471 97831 0.
Having needed to come to grips with child
and family law in the English, and latterly
Scottish, legal systems I found this book a
welcome addition to the range of
supporting texts. The Children Act is a
fairly comprehensive piece of legislation.
Despite this, a range of guidance docu-
ments, additional legislation and inevitably
case law has followed. Hence this third
edition has become necessary. The book is a
practical treatment of the Act rather than a
paragraph by paragraph exposition. As
such it avoids the use of innumerable foot-
notes and quotations and legal jargon. This
makes for a readable, and thus more acces-
sible, book for the wide range of those
involved in child welfare. It is not a com-
prehensive treatment of the Act. Indeed the
author points out that he has omitted
sections of the previous edition to keep
the book in reasonable bounds. As the
sections in question cover treatment of
young offenders and education supervision
orders this omission is perhaps not so vital
for nurses dealing with child welfare issues.
Each chapter begins with a brief overview of
relevant legislation as it stood prior to the
Act before examining the practicalities of
implementation. There is good use of case
law to illustrate how various aspects of the
Act have been clari®ed or further devel-
oped. Although perhaps associated in the
mind with Cleveland and other controver-
sial child care cases the Act was not a knee
jerk reaction to these situations. Rather it
was a result of a long processof research and
careful consideration which had begun
before these cases came to light. The book
gives an understanding of this process and
the thinking behind the resultant legisla-
tion. As it is not aimed speci®cally at a
health service perspective, matters such as
consent to treatment are dealt with in
relation to care and supervision orders
and parental responsibility. Questions
relating to issues of more relevance to a
clinical nurse, for example when a child is
able to sign his or her own consent for
routine surgery, are not examined. One
particularly useful section is that dealing
with the rights and role of the unmarried
father which often give rise to problems in a
ward situation. Increasingly so given
today's demographics. Health visitors and
school nurses would need additional texts
and some nurses would want to be more
fully conversant with the Act. However for
the majority of nurses working with
children this book could stand alone as a
guide to the Children Act and be a good
basic text for students in paediatric nurse
training. It would be a useful addition to a
ward library and essential to the library of
any hospital where children are cared for.
One word of caution in relation to
readership is that, as the author points
out, the book deals with only with legisla-
tion as it relates to England and Wales. It is
of limited value to those working in the
Scottish or Northern Irish jurisdictions.
Jim Robinson RGN RSCN MSc BA (Hons)
DMS Cert.Nur.Sc.
Lecturer in Children's Nursing
Royal Hospital for Sick Children
and Department of Nursing Studies
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Scotland
Children and Social Welfare in Europe by
Keith Pringle. Open University Press,
Buckingham, Philadelphia, 1998, 224
pages, £16á99 ISBN 0 335 19701 9.
This is a book that students, practitioners
and policy makers interested in social
welfare reform will ®nd worth their time
and effort. A comparison and analysis of
how social welfare is organized for chil-
dren in a number of countries in Europe
and a delineation of various problems in
these countries that affect the well-being
of children are provided. Some of the
areas addressed are day care, ®nancial
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1999, 30(6), 1472±1477
1472 Ó 1999 Blackwell Science Ltd