The main theme for this month is Child Care History, to celebrate the founding of the Child Care History Network. There are articles about Jonas Hanway, David Wills on Homer Lane, Anton Tobé on the VJK, the Curtis Committee and the founding of the CCHN, as well as the Editorial. Read about the pioneers, and you will find how modern they often were in their thinking.
We’ve started a new Section this month, closely linked to the History theme. Each month we shall be publishing digests of two Key Texts – child care classics from the past, abridged and analysed to help you pick up the ideas which helped to shape our services today. This month we have Mary Carpenter and Elias Trotzkey.
An unplanned theme is that several authors have written about the fundamental concepts which influence our thinking – Keith White on the differences between the mindsets of practitioners and inspectors, Chris Durkin on child protection, while the reprint of the David Wills article echoes Keith White’s thoughts on love.
We also have a couple of items about foster care, one on training for nursery nurses in Scotland, and an argument for taking the long view in investing in children’s futures.