This cross-national study provides a comparative analysis of different understandings of errors and mistakes and approaches to dealing with them in child protection practice, using research and knowledge from eleven countries in Europe and North America. Divided into country-specific chapters, each examines the pathways that lead to mistakes happening, the scale of their impact, how responsibilities and responses are decided, how practice and policy subsequently change and the lessons that we can learn.

Kay Biesel is Professor of Child and Youth Services, focusing on child protection, at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Judith Masson is Professor of Socio-legal Studies at the University of Bristol. Nigel Parton is Professor of Applied Childhood Studies at the University of Huddersfield. Tarja Pösö is Professor of Social Work at Tampere University.