The Quality of Child Care in One Local Authority a User Study

As part of a borough-wide quality initiative, the London Borough of Camden decided to undertake a number of user studies including one for its children looked after. The purpose of the study was to develop a quality assurance approach for the service for children and young people looked after by the local authority. It began by asking the young people for their views about the service they were receiving. Their feedback was to provide a check as to how far this was meeting the requirements and standards of the Children Act 1989 and the relevant regulations and guidance. The findings from this study were to be used by the local authority to decide how to improve the service. Sally Baldry and John Kemmis describe the approach used for this study and explore the main findings. First published as a research note in The British Journal of Social Work (1998), this is an expanded article taking into account other studies.