ABSTRACT
Family centres and those who use them and work in them live in the ‘world’ with the rest of us and any attempt to describe and analyse this relatively new welfare practice in the UK must commence with some account of the social context in which such centres operate. To this end we wish to outline some key themes around the ‘family’ that will help us address four important questions - what is happening to welfare, what is happening to families, why might people need family centres and what justifies our providing these services?
