a b s t r a c tNeeds-led child and youth care has three main characteristics: a continuous focus on clients' needs, client participation in the care process (including decision making), and practitioners' displays of needs-led attitudes and skills. The primary aim of this review was to establish whether there is evidence for using a needs-led approach when working with children and families in need. We performed a literature search to find reviews and outcome studies of child and youth care for school-aged children and their families which included the core characteristics of needs-led care, and related them to outcome measures. Only a few studies attributed positive outcomes of care to the attention given to clients' needs and goals. Most studies referred to participation in terms of clients' involvement or engagement. Higher levels of participation were associated with positive changes in child behaviors and parenting stress, client satisfaction, higher completion rates, safety for children, feelings of well-being and empowerment, and better service coordination. Significant professional attitudes and skills included listening to clients and working in active partnership with them. There is some proof for the relevance of core characteristics of needs-led child and youth care, although that evidence is limited by the lack of rigorous studies. This study indicates that needs-led child and youth care can make a difference. Future research should pay attention to the intertwinement of the characteristics of the needs-led approach in care.

Background  In many cases, sexual abuse involving a person with an intellectual disability (ID; as a victim and/or as a perpetrator) is not reported to the police. There are very few studies addressing police procedures in these cases, and even fewer addressing procedures at the Public Prosecutor level. The present study had two goals: (i) to describe relevant characteristics of cases of sexual abuse, involving people with ID (as a victim or perpetrator), that were either reported to the police or sent to the Public Prosecutor; (ii) to describe the dynamics of the process from making the report to passing the sentence. Method  In this case‐file research, 75 police reports and dossiers at the Public Prosecutor, regarding sexual abuse were followed from the initial report to the police, up to the conviction. Results  Even if a case was reported to the police, it did not always go forward to the Public Prosecutor and when a person with ID was involved as the perpetrator, few were actually convicted. Conclusions  Whether the perpetrator had an ID did not appear to be a decisive factor in furnishing proof or in the conviction. There seemed to be no evidence for any specific disability‐related influence on the judicial process in cases against perpetrators of sexual abuse. Differentiating police data from court data, however, revealed an important finding. Relatives appeared in court dossiers far more than in police files (34% versus 14%), while on the contrary staff made up 24% in police files and only 13% in court dossiers. This suggested that different sensitivities, protecting staff compared with relatives, may be present in the judicial process, rather than in services.

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