Public inquiries in the child welfare field are employed as a mechanism to bring attention to policy and practice issues and soothe public concerns at failures in the care and protection of children. The paper addresses the question of whether the inquiry is a worthwhile arena for researchers who wish to see their findings used to inform policy. The paper draws on the Victorian Inquiry into Vulnerable Children and the Northern Territory inquiries into child abuse to inform the discussion. Our conclusions are that the inquiry mode, whilst unpredictable is too important a public policy tool for researchers to ignore.