Martin Herbert is very widely known, not just amongst his fellow clinical psychologists, but amongst a broad spectrum of professionals and parents in many countries. His reputation springs not just from his teaching and writing, but from his activities across professional boundaries and his commitment to direct work with children and families. In his own profession he has held chairs in Clinical Psychology in Leicester and Exeter Universities where he set up doctoral clinical psychology courses, at Leicester in the 1980s and in Devon in the 1990s. As Professor of Social Work in Leicester from 1975 to 1982 he was the last senior academic in that field who was not a social worker. Despite heavy loads he has developed and implemented very carefully articulated programmes for the assessment and treatment of children, particularly those with oppositional, aggressive and anxious behaviour. Maintenance of his own personal participation has been axiomatic. He has carried his skills and knowledge into many different contexts, including those concerned with adults, but has derived especial enjoyment from work with paediatricians and children with disabilities. He has been Chair of two ACPP branches, East Midlands and South West.

HoNOSCA is a timely newcomer to the field of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) research. In its short life it has already been thoroughly and successfully evaluated. Its user-friendliness has made it acceptable and even popular in routine clinical practice. It was central to clinical data gathering for the recent national survey of CAMH provision in the UK (Audit Commission, 1999). What are the reasons for its popularity? What are its limitations? And what about possible future uses?

This article discusses the main findings of a detailed study of the operation of the appeal process in cases of permanent exclusion in England and Wales carried out by the author with Karen Eden (Research Fellow) in 1997–99. The project, which involved the first comprehensive research into this subject, was funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

The facts of the Bulger case and its legal consequences, in particular the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), are summarised. A review of the literature on child homicide indicates that this continues to be rare, can neither be predicted nor prevented, and suggests that the future outlook for such offenders may be good. The recommendations of a committee set up by Justice (1996) for changes in legislation and procedures concerning children who have killed, are congruent with the European Court's judgements, but still woefully at odds with public attitudes.

David Galloway, Chair of the ACPP, is Professor of Primary Education and Chairman of the Board of Studies in Education in the University of Durham. ‘Primary Education’ in the title of his Chair does not do justice to the extraordinary range of his interests and achievements. At the core there lies a fundamental concern to maximise schools' contribution to children's development by extending our understanding of processes, individuals and personal relationships. His exploration of processes extends from the interface between home and school to children's approach to learning: their motivational style. Those with a mastery orientation ‘are concerned with their own further learning and the opportunities offered by new and challenging tasks’. It is an adaptive response in which such children demonstrate persistence and seek ways to overcome difficulties. That this is David's style became rapidly apparent when discussing his career. Some would call him a self-starter, who has retained his independence of spirit while working within educational and university structures.

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.