The Kilbrandon report was, and still remains, one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with 'children in trouble'. Though it is now over thirty years since it was first published, current debate about child care practices and polices in Scotland still resonates with principles and philosophies derived from the Kilbrandon Report itself.
What is also remarkable is that the institutional framework for supporting children and families established on the basis of the key recommendations of the report has been largely unchanged since it was introduced in 1971. This publication is a reprint of the original Kilbrandon Report timed to coincide with the changes in the law through the Children's (Scotland) Act 1995.