Residential Child Care

Should some professionals have exemption from the practice principles and the code of ethical conduct of their profession and immunity from the disciplinary procedures? In February of this year, Dr. Roy Meadow appealed to the High Court regarding a finding by the General Medical Council that evidence he gave in criminal proceedings was seriously flawed … Read more

The title is somewhat  unfair. We are actually reporting on a day workshop run by the York Group at St Peter’s School in York, which considered the issue of bullying and in particular focused on the School’s impressive anti-bullying pilot system. The York Group was originally set up by Professor Ewan Anderson in 1989 as … Read more

It’s hard for anyone to believe now that back at the beginning of the 1970s there were still villages in England like the one where I grew up until I was between thirteen and fourteen years old. There were a few farm workers’ cottages, and when I sit at Council meetings now and hear phrases … Read more

I’d like to be pro-fostering and pro-residential, and in fact I am. I think it’s good for children and young people to potentially have both these options if they need to be looked after and accommodated. I’m glad that we are developing different kinds of fostering and the way that some residential units have been … Read more

One of the unforeseen consequences of the end of the Cold War was that greater freedom and removal of controls on travel led to massive population movements. Many of the people on the move were adults, seeking employment in countries with a stronger economy and better wages than their own, escaping political, social or religious … Read more

This is what one of the youngsters in the Mill Grove family called out yesterday as he rolled down a hillside covered with thick snow. And I thought I would tell you a little bit about the day in question, because this isn’t the sort of thing I have heard him say every day and … Read more

I don’t know why it is, but I am having increasing problems with the English language! It’s not that I didn’t do a degree in English at Oxford and can’t construct a sentence, or spell most words correctly (although I do have a real difficulty with my increasingly wayward handwriting). It’s just that there don’t … Read more

Once a year at Mill Grove we invite the whole extended family and friends to come together for a day of thanksgiving and celebration. It’s always on a Saturday in May, and comprises a lively participative service in a local church, followed by an afternoon and evening at home with refreshments, games, barbecue, audio-visuals, DVDs … Read more

During three weeks in June, staying in Peninsular Malaysia where I was lecturing, my wife and I had time to enjoy something of the natural world in that tropical country. We explored coral reefs, freshwater lakes, rubber plantations, paddy fields, wells and springs, botanical gardens, butterfly farms, coastal plains and jungles on the islands of … Read more

The editor of Children Webmag suggested that I might do a piece on Janusz Korczak for this month’s journal and I jumped at the idea because he is one of my primary heroes and mentors. Let’s begin with his extraordinary life, before I reflect on the way in which he has influenced my thinking and … Read more

Something quite remarkable has happened in the life of the young person whom I will call Morag. I’ll tell you about it and then perhaps we can try and find a way of describing it. Morag came to live at Mill Grove ten years or so ago. She arrived with a little suitcase that she … Read more

I think it fair to say that there is a general recognition that the life-chances of individuals, and the survival of groups and organisations, are closely related to their ability to remember or recall their past. If you put it the other way round it is reasonably clear that a child with no knowledge of … Read more