The papers I have drawn together reflect some of the dilemmas inherent in the changing role and focus of childcare social work in this post-modern millennium world. Professional social work activity is being increasingly framed and some may argue constrained within a welter of well- intentioned legislative and policy imperatives underpinned by targets and performance indicators. The dawning of the millennium will bring the implementation of two further new procedural guidance documents. First, the new draft Working together to safeguard children and second, the Framework for the assessment of children in need and their families. These guidance documents represent an attempt to help social workers and other professionals become clearer in their task of protecting children, and to improve assessment skills so that appropriate support services can be provided to meet the complex and diverse needs of children and their families. The following articles are reviewed as they highlight how, despite their laudable aims, legislative imperatives and policy initiatives can easily become subverted by the complex, contradictory and ambiguous reality that childcare practitioners often encounter.