Editorial

Children’s services in countries throughout the world face similar problems. Numbers in
out-of-home care have been rising, fuelled by the crack cocaine epidemic in the US and
increasing problems of substance misuse in the UK, together with growing awareness
of the pervasive nature of child abuse. Previously ‘child welfare’ usually meant the
investigation of maltreatment. ‘Child well-being’ implies a more holistic concern with the
many forces that impinge on children’s lives.