welcomed additional chapters on adult

services for people with physical disability

and long term conditions, particularly

neurology. I also felt that the majority of

contributors missed out on issues of part-

nerships with housing authorities and hous-

ing providers without which the delivery of

health and social care is unlikely to be

successful. An exploration of the challenges

of working in two tier authorities would also

have been valuable; two tier barriers are also

often ignored in national policy initiatives

which tend to be unitary centric.

Overall then this book is very good (9/

10) and delivered its’ stated aim, but left

me wanting more.

ANN FITZPATRICK

Lancashire County Council, UK

DOI: 10.1080/13561820903078280

Safeguarding Children and Schools

Mary Baginsky (Ed.)

London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley

Publishers, 2008

224 pp., £19.99

ISBN: 978-1-84310-514-5

The impact of the Every Child Matters

guidelines in respect of schools and their

role in safeguarding vulnerable children is

closely examined. Although the focus is the

agenda in England, reference is made to

parallel developments in Scotland, Wales

and a comparative chapter from Australia

is included. The relationships between

practitioners working in school settings

and other professionals are also consid-

ered, making it of interest to all practi-

tioners working together to safeguard

children. From a social work background,

I found insights into multiprofessional

working and understood better the role of

practitioners in schools and what they

might achieve for children and their

families.

The book has three sections, Policy,

Practice and Training. The first consists

of three chapters that provide an overview

of developments from 1960 to date, an

outline of the role of local authorities in

relation to schools and a case study of

preventative working together in Scotland.

In the second section, authors consider

how schools best support certain groups of

children (‘‘in care’’, disabled children;

children with harmful sexual behaviours)

or consider the part played by a service

(mental health, counselling services, the

taught curriculum). These chapters discuss

creatively the topic and the responsibilities

of the school for educating children and

also safeguarding each child, appropriately.

Finally, three chapters consider the train-

ing needs of those who work in school

environments and outline ideas for the

content of training.

Teachers, as the foreword identifies, are

in a pivotal position for recognizing when

children are unhappy, assessing what kind

of help they might need and being part of

the multidisciplinary group that responds

to the child’s situation. Teachers see

children regularly and are often a consis-

tent part of children’s lives. This has been

recognized by policy makers as critical to

the safeguarding of all, and especially the

most vulnerable children. In the past,

teachers may have simply made referrals

to other agencies. Our current understand-

ing of shared roles and responsibilities

expects more of teachers, in a way which

makes it more important to examine how

their ‘‘child welfare’’ role can be exercised

in partnership with the child, family and

other professionals without making them

social workers rather than educators.

The expectations which recent policy

guidelines place on every person who

comes into contact with children through

their role in a school are highlighted. It is

timely in providing ways to handle some

complex dilemmas and interactions. At the

same time it raises the dilemmas of

implementation, in that policies are only

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effective when practitioners have time,

space and support to examine the implica-

tions of policy change, develop new skills,

and to learn strategies for responding to

change through training, supervision and

interprofessional exchange.

Mary Baginsky’s excellent summary of

child welfare policy since the 1960s sets the

context for the book and shows just how

little time practitioners have had to adjust

to one policy framework before the next

was introduced. There is much to do if the

Every Child Matters paradigm is to be

embedded to benefit children and young

people as intended. It also in my view

provides a valuable resource for other

professionals seeking to understand that

role and their own relationship to it.

JANET SEDEN

Senior Lecturer, Social Work,

The Open University, UK

DOI: 10.1080/13561820903078223

Ageing, Disability and Spirituality:

Addressing the Challenge of Disability

in Later Life

Elizabeth MacKinlay (Ed.)

London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley

Publishers, 2008

272 pp., £19.99

ISBN 978-1-84310-584-8

This collection began as a series of papers

given at a conference at the Centre for

Ageing and Pastoral Studies in Canberra,

Australia. Almost all the contributors are

based in Australia so that the formal

structures in which they work are specific

to that country. However the issues con-

fronted are of international relevance.

This is not a practical guide. The aim of

the publication is to bring the spiritual

needs of people in the later years of life,

and people with disabilities, which are

either lifelong or connected with the ageing

process, to the attention of those who work

with or are otherwise involved with them.

Their mental health needs are highlighted

in a consideration of their spiritual needs.

Many contributors stress the increasing

number of people with dementia for whom

services will need to be provided in the

coming years, and offer ways of working

with and thinking about this growing and

largely unconsidered group of people.

The importance of the subject makes the

book of value to doctors, nurses, therapists,

clergy and both field and residential work-

ers in social care, as well as lay people with

an interest in the well being of the two

groups considered. Because of the book’s

origin, it is no surprise that all the contri-

butors are Christian, although reference is

made to other religious groups. The

chapter by Palapathwala (pp. 145–162)

for example, discusses the relevance of

Buddhist thought to Christian pastoral care

in terms of its ‘‘non-theistic but non-

humanist religio-philosophical system’’

(p. 160). In this chapter the role and needs

both of the caregiver and the care receiver

are considered.

Several of the contributors discuss

Christian scripture and its lessons for a

consideration of people’s spiritual needs.

This emphasis may limit the readership of

the book. It is important to acknowledge

that spirituality is a facet of the lives of

people who are not involved with organized

religion. For example, it would have been

helpful for there to be at least one chapter

in which spirituality and humanism were

discussed.

Some of the chapters discuss small

research projects on aspects of working

with older people. For example Robertson-

Gillam (pp. 182–199) describes a choir

project with residents of a care home, a

proportion of whom suffered from demen-

tia, in which it was found that membership

of the choir (or reminiscence work which

was done with another group) helped to

alleviate depression. A further illuminating

chapter (Moran, pp. 200–216) discusses

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