For some children secure accommodation seems to be the only way to control their disparate number of "problems". But why is this so, and from what criteria do social work professionals decide that a child should be put into secure accommodation? In Secure Accommodation in Child Care the authors use an empirical study of secure accommodation as a basis for an analysis of the relations between the state, the family and the "difficult" child. By looking at court procedures, social workers and the children themselves they explain how professionals and children make sense of their worlds, and how they translate that "sense" into personal or professional action. Secure Accommodation in Child Care is essential reading for social service managers, social policy makers, social workers and health care professionals as well as for students and lecturers of social policy and social work. Robert Harris is Professor of Social Work in the University of Hull, Noel Timms, recently retired, is Emeritus Professor of the University of Leicester.