Editorial: Why another journal?
| Date | 01 April 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200600001 |
| Published date | 01 April 2006 |
| Pages | 2-4 |
| Author | Michael Little,Nick Axford |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
2
1Dartington Social
Research Unit,
UK and Chapin
Hall Center for
Children,
University of
Chicago, USA
2Dartington Social
Research Unit, UK
Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 1 Issue 1 April 2006
©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Editorial: Why another journal?
This is the first edition of the Journal of Children’s
Services,anew quarterly title 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. The journal is
aimed at everyone involved in children’s services both in
the UK and internationally, in particular policy makers,
senior managers, practitioners, researchers, trainers
and groups representing the views of service users.
An obvious question to be answered must be ‘why
another journal?’ There are so many journals relating
to the well-being of children that it is necessary for a
research centre such as ours at Dartington to run
‘journal clubs’ where individuals take responsibility
for keeping others up-to-date with what is happening
in the publications they cover. With so much written,
and so much unread, the wisdom of producing
something new has to be tested. Yet doing just that
has been on our ‘to do’ list for some time now. Why?
Along with many others working in the field, our
longstanding interest has been to demonstrate ways
of improving child outcomes by developing research
evidence and applying that evidence to policy and
practice. Since children’s well-being crosses several
disciplines, it is necessary for those who undertake
such work to look beyond the primary psychology,
sociology and health literatures. Since improving child
well-being involves a whole range of professionals,
one also has to look further than the education, social
work, youth justice and mental health journals. So had
there been a journal that crossed some of these
divides, we at least would have subscribed to it. We
know from conversations we have had that many other
researchers, not to mention professionals and service
users, have similar needs. But the aspirations for the
journal go far wider than these narrow concerns.
At the heart of this journal is a desire to promote a
discussion about outcomes for children and the
integration of children’s services. So what is meant by
these terms?
The primaryfocus is on aspects of children’s
development. (Children are taken to mean people aged
0-17 years, although it is recognised that the transition
to adulthood extends into people’s twenties, and that
it is often necessary to study adults in order to
understand child development.) We want to know
better how child development outcomes can be
improved – or, where there are declines in well-being,
how to arrest that decline. The areas of children’s lives
encompassed here are physical and mental health,
cognition and intellect, behaviour and ability to
function in society. The focus is not on vision
statements about improving child well-being, although
these can have value; rather, it is on measurable
aspects of child development. A critical task is to
understand howthese outcomes can be improved,
both for individuals and also for groups of children.
This interest is expressed at a time of much
concern about trends in the well-being of children,
potentially indicating declines in behavioural and
other mental health outcomes. This evidence is
referred to here byBill Jordan in his analysis of the
roots and utility of the concept of ‘well-being’ and will
be reported in future editions of the Journal.
The focus on child development outcomes is one
half of the concern of this Journal; the other half
relates to children’s services – both the way in which
they interact with patterns of child development and
also their role in achieving better outcomes.
What is meant by ‘children’s services’? For some
time now they have been defined as services organised
but not necessarily provided by health, education,
social care, police and youth justice agencies on behalf
of children and their families. The provision may come
from a whole range of private or voluntary
organisations, or from the community in which the
services are situated. As Herbert Laming describes in
his interview in this edition, each local authority in
England must now have a director of children’s
services, heading up a department that frequently
subsumes education and social services organisations
and that is closely linked to health, youth justice and
the police. But this integration is also manifest in some
way in most other jurisdictions in Europe, North
America, Australia and New Zealand (at least).
Certain other features of children’s services and
their implications for this Journal should be pointed
out. First, they are relevant to all children and not just
those from disadvantaged communities or those with
an identified impairment to their development. Thus,
Michael Little1and Nick Axford2
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