Outcomes Based Accountability (OBA) is an approach that Children's Trusts and Children's Services can use to assist with planning services and assessing their performance. The OBA approach focuses on outcomes that are desired and monitoring and evidencing progress towards those desired outcomes. OBA makes a distinction between two types of…

President Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997, Public Law 105-89 105th Congress, 1st session on November 19, 1997. The ambitious new law aimed to reaffirm the focus on child safety in case decision making and to ensure that children did not languish and grow up in foster care but instead were connected with permanent…

Because the expansion of parenting education is likely to continue, it is important to ensure that methods involved in parenting education are effective. This report summarizes research on the effectiveness of parenting education and provides information to help practitioners develop methods of working with parents that are based on sound research…

This document contains the first six research updates to "Alaska's Adolescents: A Plan for the Future," a comprehensive 1994 report on adolescent health issues prepared by the multiagency Alaska Adolescent Health Advisory Committee. "The Media and Adolescent Health: Television's Impact on Certain Teen Behaviors" (Elizabeth…

This report contains the results of a 3-year study sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, whose purpose was to assess what has been happening to youth who commit status offenses (truants, runaways, incorrigibles), in the aftermath of the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The book reviews and…

The book comes out of a University research project that has worked closely with one local programme over five years from its beginning. Sure Start is a national government initiative that targets families with children aged up to the age of four in areas of social and economic disadvantage, to promote development so children are ready to thrive…

Noting the importance of identifying the effectiveness of child welfare programs for future policy planning, this book examines features of successful programs. The book is presented in six sections: family preservation and family support services, child protective services, out-of-home care, adoption, child care, and adolescent services. Each…