The issues addressed are in three broad categories: history, function, and effectiveness. In the area of history, the book focuses on whether there is a CPU movement or whether the occurrence of CPU's is merely a random series of organizational events, further, if there is such a movement, what its characteristics are, how it has developed, and where it is going? Another history issue pertains to why a provision of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has given way to a large-scale local-authority investment in this area. In the matter of function, the study examines how this CPU movement fits into the wider child protection system and the functions it fulfills for the various parts of this system. Further, the study considers how these functions have changed over time. Regarding effectiveness, the study considers what an average CPU can be expected to achieve and what can be expected of the wider CPU movement. In addition, it addresses whether it is possible to assess the success or failure of the movement or the individual CPU within it, and the implications for child protection systems in general. The study addresses these issues through a literature review and empirical research that consisted of semi-structured interviews with key individuals within the Coltown child protection system, a survey of Coltown staff, and a survey of child protection agencies in England and Wales. Appended supplementary information, a 102-item bibliography, and a subject index