A very mixed bag this month.
In the Editorial we raise the widespread concern about the future of NCERCC; if it matters to you, there is something you can do.
News Views contains the usual snippets of news and ragbag of ideas – the importance of fathers, residential care and Barnardo’s, the need for praise, the Pope, Attach-a-Tag, and children’s questions.
Keith White’s In Residence column shows how children’s questions may be the key to the solutions adults have to find.
A.J. Stone’s novel about Aaron and his life at Templewood children’s home is horribly real, and gets more gripping with every chapter. Is there a future for a boy with a past?
Jane Lane lays out a clear argument, warning early years workers to be alert to unintended institutional racism.
Valerie Jackson fires off salvos at a number of problems affecting children, including bureaucracy and bed bugs.
There are two Key Texts, Digests by Robert Shaw. First there is John Bowlby’s classic on Child Care and the Growth of Love, and then the research by Clarke & Clarke which debunked some of Bowlby’s ideas.
There is a bunch of Book Reviews
The title of the first may sound daunting, but it is full of challenging ideas, edited by Emmanuel Grupper and others, it contains a blend of papers by Germans and Israelis pointing out that social work has much to learn from social pedagogy.
Professor Roger Clough has reviewed the recently published book of Keith White’s Webmag In Residence column under the title Reflections on Living with Children. We obviously have an interest in this, which we are happy to declare; we want you to buy it. But see what Roger Clough thinks.
There is a useful little book by Christopher MacGregor to help children to come to terms with absent fathers.
And Valerie Jackson invites readers who have read The Little Prisoner to send in their comments. She is also asking for support for a charity which helps bereaved children.