Improving Outcomes for Children and Families: Finding and Using International Evidence

Members of the International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children Services (IaOBERfcs) report results from their research in eight countries, including national and cross-national studies, on proposals to improve the evidence base needed to advance children and family services. Their topics include demystifying the evidence in child welfare, evaluating complexity in community-based programs, approaches to evaluation in services for families and children, challenges of using administrative data in cross-national evaluations of services for children in out-of-home care, identifying outcomes at the Sunshine Family Centre in outer London, and assessing practice in a child and family center in Australia. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Anthony N. Maluccio is Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work, University of Connecticut, USA. He has published extensively in the fields of child and family social work, child welfare and foster care. Cinzia Canali is Researcher at the Fondazione Zancan in Padua, Italy, where she has undertaken projects related to evaluative research and the evaluation of services, particularly in relation to child and family services. Tiziano Vecchiato is the Director of the Fondazione Zancan. He collaborates with the Ministry for Family Policies in Italy and has previously undertaken national health care evaluation. Anita Lightburn is Professor in the Graduate School of Social Services at Fordham University, USA, and has had 25 years' experience in evaluation. Jane Aldgate OBE is Professor Emerita at the Open University and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She has researched and published extensively on social work and child welfare, both nationally and internationally. Wendy Rose is Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK, and works on national and international child welfare research and development projects. She was previously a senior civil servant advising the government on children's policy. All of the editors have published widely in the fields of child and family services, child welfare and evaluation. Anthony, Cinzia, Tiziano, Anita and Wendy are also members of the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children's Services.