Who is failing abused and neglected children?

This is a response to an article by Nigel Speight and Jane Wynne, 'Is the C hildren Act failing severely abused and neglected children?', published in this journal in March 2000.(1) Overall, we consider the article to be polem ical and inadequately argued. Many of the points made are unsubstantiated a nd there are errors of fact. Where does evidence based practice go if senio r practitioners prefer anecdotes and personal belief to research findings? Restrictions on space preclude an exhaustive reply to all the points Speigh t and Wynne raise, so we have confined ourselves to addressing those consid ered most significant.