In Residence

Dame Gillian Pugh was Director of the Early Childhood Unit at the National Children’s Bureau from 1986 – 1997 and Chief Executive of Coram from 1997 – 2005.  She was an adviser to the Department for Education from 1997 – 2010. Summary Services for young children in England in the 1970s were not a priority … Read more

How the Plowden Report (1967) sent Early Childhood Care and Education in Britain down the wrong path, and why we have never found our way since By Sonia Jackson UCL Social Research Institute Abstract The 1967 report of the Central Advisory Council for Education, chaired by Lady (Bridget) Plowden was hailed as a breakthrough at … Read more

This article originally appeared in the journal ‘Educational Therapy & Therapeutic Teaching’ the journal of the Caspari Foundation. There is currently a great deal of concern about children who are failing to thrive in our schools through difficulties around both learning and behaviour. One could say that these children lack self-awareness, self control and a … Read more

Danielle Gaye has a BSc (Hons) and is an ACSEP graduate. Danielle is a Registered Manager with the Cambian Group. Abstract: This best practice guide has been written following 15 months managing a residential children’s home in the South West of England. The home is registered to support four children and specialises in looking after … Read more

‘Love and freedom are vital to the creation and upbringing of a child’: exploring Sylvia Pankhurst’s visit to the Little Commonwealth Sylvia Pankhurst, with her friend and East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELF) colleague Norah Smyth, visited the Little Commonwealth in Dorset on 23 October 1915.[i] She was one of around a dozen suffragettes whose … Read more

Usually when I write a column for The TCJ based on a specific incident, conversation or occasion, I seek to get to work on it immediately to ensure that no details are forgotten.  But in this case I have waited almost a week to ponder what happened and make sense of the turning points in … Read more

Last night (Monday 7th March 2022) the six-year-old boy sitting beside me during our evening meal at Mill Grove paused over the plate of spaghetti he was enjoying, to inform me that there had been a Tube Strike.  He then described how children and families were ducking and running in underground stations because of bombs … Read more

Introduction by Hannah Dodds: I have sixteen years experience of working in children’s residential care in the UK and the USA. I have worked in various children’s social care settings and directly worked with children who have suffered neglectful and abusive early childhoods and ongoing placement breakdowns. My passion for working in this sector increased … Read more

A review of Quality Standards for professional alternative child and youth care in group homes.  Verlag Plochl FICE (Austria) Freistadt Austria ISBN 978-3-903093-59-1.  “Quality” is an elusive term. It’s an aerosol word, liberally sprayed to increase the value of a product or suggest a kind of service which goes well beyond the normal. And yet, it … Read more

Here is a story I have written that captures some of my difficulties working with the way the ‘work’ in Alternative Provision is funded in my Local Authority. My concern is how children are ‘banded’, supposedly to meet their need  for care and exploration through meaningfully accommodating children in places and spaces. The problem is, … Read more

Wishing a prosperous 2022 to all our readers, and a warm welcome to our February 1st edition of the TCJ. In this issue we publish several papers on the theme of developing school and residential care cultures that offer an appropriate ‘holding environment’ for emotionally troubled and traumatised children and young people. We start this … Read more

It’s a privilege when a child in care is delighted it’s you.  R. J. (Sean) Cameron and Colin Maginn. 2021. The Pillars of Parenting Ltd (Publishing), Sunderland, pp 204. £26.00 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-8381-3410-5 Book review by Dr Chris Hanvey. Children require two things from their parents: “roots and wings”. Roots help make stable emotional growth … Read more