At the time of publication Eileen Youghusband was Adviser on Social Work Training at the National Institute for Social Work Training, and President of the International Association of Schools for Social Work. She had also been for some twenty-five years chairman of a London Juvenile Court and was chairman of the Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services (Ministry of Health). She had been from time to time a Social Affairs Consultant to the United Nations and was a lecturer at the London School of Economics. To social workers, whether active at the time, or in training, she would have needed no introduction and they will have welcomed a book incorporating her immense experience and all the originality and clarity of thought they had learned to expect from her.