Traditional ways of working with children and young people are giving way to new practices. Where practice solutions previously tended to be imposed on children and young people, professionals are now looking to engage them as vital partners in actively negotiated and co-constructed models of working. Combining social ecological and social constructionist perspectives drawn from a range of academic and practice disciplines, Working with Children and Young People explores and interrogates how ideas about childhood, policy and professional discourses change over time and, in turn, affect the issues faced by young people and their families. In particular, this important text: develops a critical and reflective approach to knowledge and practice explored vividly across a wide range of practice settingspresents a new vision, where the focus is centrally on the child or young person and where dominant ideas are challengedexplores how key concerns, such as professional power and children's rights, embed themselves in working relationships.Working with Children and Young People provides an innovative critical framework for all students on vocational and professional courses involving work with children and young people. It also offers illuminating reading for practitioners working with the 0-18 age group, whether in the statutory, voluntary or private sectors.


LINDSAY O’DELL is a Lecturer in Children and Young People and Director of Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University, UK. Her research interests focus on children who are in some way ’different’, including sexually abused children, children with a visible difference and children with autism. STEPHEN LEVERETT is a Lecturer in Children and Young People in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University, UK. His practice background is in social care and social work in both the statutory and voluntary sector. His publications include Connecting with Children: Developing Working Relationships (2008, co-edited with Pam Foley).