Foreword.

• Author: Gray, Don
• Position: Editorial

This is the 33rd issue of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, and it covers a wide range of policy issues and topics. The main themes are family violence, older people, and care and protection issues. This issue also includes papers on programmes for the long-term unemployed, capacity building and the personal impact of stroke. We are particularly pleased to include two papers reporting findings from the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), an important source of longitudinal data about New Zealand.

Family violence is an issue of ongoing concern. Greg Newbold and Jenny Cross's paper centres on policing policy and practice in response to domestic violence. Data from CHDS are analysed in a paper by Dannette Marie, David M. Fergusson and Joseph M. Boden. They explore the associations between ethnicity and aspects of intimate partner violence.

Three papers address matters relating to older people in New Zealand. Judith Davey takes up the issues of our ageing work force in her analysis of results from the Health, Work and Retirement study. She combines qualitative and quantitative data to develop a nuanced understanding of what influences the decision to retire. Bevan C Grant's paper explores how best to incorporate awareness of the value of exercise into the healthy ageing programme. In their study of older people living at home using low-level home support, Penny Hambleton, Sally Keeling and Margaret McKenzie use in-depth interviewing to understand what these services mean to their clients' quality of life.

Care and protection services are addressed in two papers in this issue. Kathleen Manion and Jane Renwick analyse the findings of a large-scale study of case notes of Child, Youth and Family investigations. They explore what happens during investigations that are closed without a formal intervention to follow. Bev James focuses on the movements of child clients of Child, Youth and Family, the data being part of a study of overall residential mobility in four case study locations. Her paper looks at how the findings concerning these children were used by one of the communities to engage agencies in a practical response to community concerns, initially through the local research reference group established for the wider study.

Donna McKenzie, Te Atarangi Whiu, Donna...