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Several studies have used secondary data sources in order to learn about outcomes for adults who have been in contact with the care system in childhood. This article discusses two of the large‐scale longitudinal datasets in the UK that are available to researchers and which include information on adults who were looked after in childhood: The National Child Developmental Study (NCDS) and The British Cohort Study (BCS70). These databases are considered to be among the best sources available to investigate long‐term outcomes for looked‐after children in the UK. This article describes these databases and the use made of them by researchers exploring the life chances of looked‐after children. It also identifies the advantages as well as the limitations of these datasets and presents implications for this field of research.

This chapter considers the interwoven history of child care advocacy and feminism in Canada. It begins by examining the efforts of second-wave feminists to make child care part of national political discussions. It then moves into the 1980s and 1990s, when, as part of broader neoliberal reforms, feminist demands were no longer foregrounded in child care advocacy. Instead, ‘social investment’ and childhood development rationales took centre stage. This chapter considers the implications of the ‘disappearing woman’ from child care advocacy, and concludes by making a case for the ongoing relevance of intersectional feminism to the child care landscape, to ensure that all women are offered meaningful choice, opportunities and rights when it comes to their roles as caregivers and workers.

The purpose of this paper is to chart the history of personal social services for children and families in the UK and examine the factors that have influenced it. Special attention is given to changing perceptions of rights, the impact of scandals and the contribution of child development research.

Analysis of historical documents and research reports using four methods: a timeline of milestones, demarcation of distinct developmental periods, trends in policy and practice and comparisons of children’s needs and experiences at different times.

The evolution of services has not been linear. In policy, there have been reform and retrenchment, amalgamation and differentiation. Practice has been shaped by the emergence of new problems and the disappearance of old ones as well as by legislation, extreme events, research and finance, all occurring in specific political, moral and economic contexts.

An analysis of developments in children’s services in their political, economic, moral and research contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the legacy of six pioneer child care researchers.

An assessment of the achievements of a generation of child care researchers.

The early researchers were not only highly innovative in terms of theory and methodologies but also left a set of studies that stimulated and informed subsequent studies.

A review of the work of six pioneering child care researchers.

The Children Act 1989 ended a period of four decades during which the education of children and young people in care was almost entirely neglected. However, it was another 20 years before education took its rightful place at the centre of provision for the care of children away from home. This article considers the contribution made to this process by the Act and its accompanying Guidance, what progress has been made and what were the obstacles, past and continuing, that have made it so difficult to narrow the gap in attainment between looked‐after children and others.

Describes the circumstances behind the foundation and development of the Barnardo′s photographic archive in relation to Thomas Barnardo′s work in providing for destitute children in the late nineteenth century. Indicates the reasons for the development of a photographic archive and describes its history and eventual preservation as well as the contents of the archive.

Child care research has progressed over the past several decades to a level of sophistication and depth that begins to give some answers to the question, “what is the impact of child care on young children?” This paper provides a model within which this complex body of literature can be viewed and presents a comprehensive review of the literature. The Child Care Quality Model, based on ecological theory, helps to organize and conceptualize the relationship among the salient components of the child care research literature. Central to the model is the relationship of child care quality to child outcomes. In addition, both proximal and distal influencing variables are considered.The examination of the literature expands on these aspects of the model by first reviewing the elements of structural and process quality, and how these are measured. It then considers studies that report the impact of child care on child outcomes in social, behavioral/emotional, and cognitive/language development. Research that focuses on additional influencing factors, which interact with child care to impact child outcomes, are also reviewed. These include proximal variables such as family characteristics, child characteristics, and program characteristics, and more distal community and societal variables, including child care licensing standards. A summary synthesizes the literature in the context of the Child Care Quality Model, and points out some of the gaps in the current level of understanding of how child care influences young children.

This paper aims to tell something of the story of the “Hawkspur Experiment” (1936–1941), a therapeutic camp organised early in the modern history of therapeutic community as an intervention into the lives of young men who were viewed to be at risk of delinquency (Wills, 1967). Although it was to have a remarkable influence on group and therapeutic community practice and theory, the authors argue that its influence is not as well-remembered nor incorporated into contemporary therapeutic understanding and discussion as it should be.

This paper is a historical reflection based on systematic examination of the clinical and administrative records of Hawkspur Camp for men, and supporting documents held in the Planned Environment Therapy Archive. In addition, the authors use published primary and secondary sources.

Hawkspur Camp was a cross-disciplinary enterprise which brought together psychoanalytic thinking, social work, an interest in groups, political activism, a concern with the dynamics and working of democracy and the application of emergent social science methods. It was overtly an intervention into the criminal justice system but was also an intentional exploration of the therapeutic benefits of community living and of a “pioneering” lifestyle; a rigorous experiment in how psychoanalytic ideas might be used in group residential settings; and a politically grounded exploration of participative democracy as a fundamental therapeutic principle.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents the first findings from a systematic study of the records of Hawkspur Camp.

This paper explores a major pathway that lead people into the ranks of the homeless, the mental health and the justice systems ‐ abuse as a child followed by time in the care of the state. The focus is on Australia with particular emphasis on the Australian state of Victoria as a case example and on the child welfare systems which produce these outcomes. The author argues that child welfare analyses are usually too narrow in their focus. The paper examines the history of the development of child welfare systems in Australia since white settlement in the various colonies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The author demonstrates some of the wide variety of factors that produce the many negative child welfare outcomes. The original focus of child welfare systems in Australia were largely on social control of the street behaviours of children and the perceived immoral behaviour of their parents, especially their mothers. The developing systems further featured parsimonious service provision, limited visions for the future of the children, and exploitation of their labour. Swings to and from institutional and foster care as the key program responses were usually based on inadequacies of previous systems, the perceived need to control costs, and the perceived inadequacies of the non‐government service providers, rather than careful analysis of and response to the needs of children. Service redevelopment and especially reliance on family support in the late twentieth century has occurred while the traditional issues and problems, including abuse of children in care, remain current and unresolved. The development of managerialist public service practices in recent decades has added to the traditional isolation and lack of integration of the various child welfare components and actively hindered the development of an integrated system. An emphasis on minimal intervention, together with the other factors, has produced a situation in which children are frequently left at risk by the very systems supposed to protect them. The author concludes that not only do the lessons and mistakes of history need to be heeded, but that the principles, programs and management practices of child welfare need to be seen in combination as the factors which set child welfare clients on the road to homelessness or mental health and justice facilities.