Child welfare and social policy

"The depth and breadth of this collection will make it valuable reading for tertiary students as well as those working in professions which come into contact with children." Family Matters

"... invaluable reading for students and academics, as well as interesting and useful for health and social work professionals." ChildRight

"This book is important for the movement to change the way that children are viewed and subsequently change current social policy for children. The chapters are thought provoking and enlightening, providing many opportunities and conditions for the concepts to be viewed and evaluated. ... This text provides a new perspective, a challenge to old ways of defining the experience of childhood, a challenge to social policies response, and finally support for the legitimacy of the voices of children in finding their own solutions." International Journal of Sociology of the Family

"... this reader is rich in fascinating and thought-provoking accounts and cannot fail in its aim to encourage thinking theoretically and politically about child welfare." Children & Society.

"[Child welfare and social policy] is a treasure trove of resources; a collection of classic and seminal writing from prestigious writers in the field. ...It is difficult to do justice to the book in such a short review... It is underpinned by strong child-centered values and reminds us that everything we do (or do not do) with children, young people and their families is a political act, involving choices. It has messages which will be of use to students and practitioners struggling with difficult ethical dilemmas and wondering how to intervene in desperate situations." Health and Social Care in the Community

"This groundbreaking selection of seminal writings puts the subject of children and social policy in 21st-century Britain firmly on the map. Immense value is added by Harry Hendrick's introduction and trenchant critique, which locates every contribution within its specific policy context. This book is bound to become required reading for any under- and postgraduate social science student in the UK." Eva Lloyd, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

Harry Hendrick is Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Denmark. He has written widely on the welfare of children and adolescents in the 19th and 20th centuries and is currently completing a book on age relations between children and adults in England from the 18th century to the present day. He is author of Child welfare: Historical dimensions, contemporary debate (The Policy Press, 2003).

Introduction Part One: Child welfare: the historical background; Introduction; Moral campaigns for children's welfare in the nineteenth century ~ Christine Piper; Children and social policies ~ Harry Hendrick;

Part Two: Identifying and exploring concepts and approaches; Introduction; Good intentions into social action ~ Michael King; Children - who do we think they are? ~ Peter Moss and Pat Petrie; The challenge of child poverty: developing a child-centred approach ~ Tess Ridge; Children's welfare and children's rights ~ Gerison Lansdown; Risk, advanced liberalism and child welfare ~ Nigel Parton; Conceptualising social capital in relation to the well-being of children and young people ~ Virginia Morrow; Children, parents and the state ~ Nigel Thomas; Race, culture and the child ~ Kwame Owusu-Bempah; Liberalism or distributional justice? ~ Terry Carney;

Part Three: Policies, trends, contexts and ramifications; Introduction; The 1989 Children Act and children's rights ~ Jeremy Roche; Assumptions about children's best interests ~ Christine Piper; Taking liberties: policy and the punitive turn ~ Barry Goldson; Tightening the net: children, community and control ~ Adrian James and Allison James; 'Mad', 'bad' or misunderstood ~ Vicki Coppock; Children and health ~ Malcolm Hill and Kay Tisdall; Reconstructing disability, childhood and social policy in the UK ~ John Davis, Nick Watson, Mairian Corker and Tom Shakespeare; Children of the welfare state ~ Anne Skevik; Fair but unequal? Children, ethnicity and the welfare state ~ Lucinda Platt; Housing policy and children ~ Paul Daniel and John Ivatts; Young carers and public policy ~ Andrew Bibby and Saul Becker; Education and the economy ~ Sally Tomlinson; Daycare: dreams and nightmares ~ Penelope Leach;

Part Four: Children, social policy and the future; Introduction; Investing in the citizen-workers of the future ~ Ruth Lister; Children's participation: control and self-realisation in British late modernity ~ Alan Prout; Conclusion.