July 2018

A joint CSP/Child Care History Network seminar on Children’s Homes: what were they really like? Have they a future? was held at King’s College, London on July 17th.

The seminar opened with Peter Higginbotham speaking about his recent book, Children’s Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain’s Young and Roger Bullock complemented this by reviewing what research has told us. A former resident then described his experience of living in residential care.

In the afternoon sessions, David Lane drew out the lessons from the Northern Ireland Inquiry into historical abuse in residential care and to conclude the proceedings Professor Ray Jones discussed the politics and economics of residential care based on his experience as a social worker, service manager and academic researcher.