ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter introduces the broad range of settings that professionals working with vulnerable children and their families work in. When thinking of working with children who have experienced abuse and neglect, practitioners who work in statutory child protection agencies immediately come to mind. While this practice environment is critical to assessing the care and protective needs of vulnerable children, statutory child protection is only one of many environments across the social and health care sector where vulnerable children and their families seek support and service delivery. The introduction outlines agreed-on definitions of what constitutes child abuse and neglect in an Anglo-Western context and the professional practice settings where professionals undertake this work with vulnerable children and their families. What supervision is and why it is beneficial is also introduced.
