The Place of Ethics in the History of Child Care
Patron: The Earl of Listowel
AGM and Autumn Conference
November 11, 2009
AGM: 9.00 – 9.50 Conference: 10.00 – 4.45
Venue: Barns Conference Centre, Planned Environment Therapy Trust
Church Lane, Toddington, Cheltenham, Glos. GL54 5DQ
THE PLACE OF ETHICS IN THE HISTORY OF CHILD CARE
The ethics of child care are being examined as they have never been before. In what is ostensibly an ethical and altruistic field, how have we arrived at a situation where we wrestle with the kind of ethical issues which are thrown up by the case of Baby Peter in the United Kingdom and the Ryan Commission into residential child care in Ireland? How should this influence how we record, handle, and research these matters? This day will be an opportunity for delegates to explore the history and make what may well be a controversial examination of these troubling issues.
The conference will be of significance to child care archivists, museum professionals and historians, health, social care and education practitioners, and managers who are concerned about the care, the health and emotional well-being as well as the education of looked-after children and young people.
To stimulate our debate and discussion we have invited speakers who are at the forefront of the practice, research and discourse of the history and ethical development of the relationship between young people and the helping professions. Our speakers are :
Mark Smith of the School of Social Work at the University of Edinburgh
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The notion of care has been marginalised within social work. In a profession that seeks to promote independence and autonomy care can be associated with dependency. Neoliberal political and economic orthodoxies conceptualise and manage care within what might be thought of as a justice rather than a care orientation, privileging universalising discourses of children’s rights and child protection. Against such a backdrop the practice of relationally based care is crowded out amidst a proliferation of rules and regulations. This presentation will locate a notion of care at the heart of what child care workers do. Caring, which starts in the everyday woof and warp of daily life, becomes the foundation for addressing issues of personal growth and development as well as introducing and addressing wider societal concerns of anti-social behaviour, citizenship, and ultimately the capacity to give and receive care. This involves practitioners in the very direct, particular, complex and often-messy aspects of caring ‘for’ rather than just ‘about’ children. Care ethics, with roots in feminist thinking provide a conceptual framework within which to consider what it means to care.
Noel Howard, the past president of the Irish Social Care Workers Association
I'll examine the past 40 years in residential care generally in Ireland and the optimism which permeated the sector from 1970 onwards with the publication of the Kennedy Report on Industrial & Reformatory Schools in Ireland, and the Castle Priory Report (Barbara Kahan) in the UK which was well publicised here. Training featured strongly in both these reports as did the plight of children in the courts, and legislative change proposals. These changes may have been slow to progress but a sense that "care can be good" became evident. All this was reversed by the emerging scandals of the early 1990s and the subsequent media attention, leading to the Redress Board scheme and the Child Abuse Commission (ultimately the Ryan Commission). Any gains made in public sympathy for the child care system have largely been lost and with the publication of the Ryan Commission’s Report, the residential sector here faces a huge climb to reverse the stigma that now, more than ever, attaches to it. I'll be considering the impact it has had on Church & State and where possibly it might all go from here.
In an Irish context now to even suggest that any questioning of the Ryan Report (think here with reference to the Waterhouse Report in England) would bring a torrent of criticism as the mood here is distinctly on the side of the victims who have a number of groups working assiduously to get the Redress Board compensation topped up (significantly) for all those who got awards. Needless to say, the legal profession here has not exactly covered itself in glory either but that's another story. To say it's a vexed question would certainly be an understatement but I will attempt to make sense of it.
June Jones of the School of Health and Population Studies at the University of Birmingham
The session will explore how the modern ethical notion of duties and rights have let children, amongst others, down. A return to the ethics of Aristotle provides an approach to child rearing and life long education that values relationships and the role of mentors. The session will show that modern medical education and child care have much in common and much to learn from an Aristotelian approach.
Richard Rollinson, Child Care Consultant and previously Regional Director of the Peper Harow Foundation, one time Principal of the Mulberry Bush School, and former Chair of the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities, will summarise the issues arising from conference’s discussions with reference to the ethical issues raised by current high profile cases such as Baby Peter’s and their implications for our social care, health and education provision for children and young people in care.
DURING THE LUNCH BREAK (after food, during coffee!):
During the lunch break, John Horsfield, the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Caledonian Schools Trust will talk about the ethical issues which arise in managing an archive which goes back to the Napoleonic Wars and which is still very much a 'live' archive:
"The Caley, as it's affectionately known, was established in 1815 to help educate the sons and daughters of Scots who were serving, or who had served, in the armed forces, and the children of poor Scots in London.
"The Caley Archives are a virtual treasure chest for those interested in history, especially genealogy. Our collection consists of Order Books, Registers, Matron’s Report Books, Pupil Files and numerous Minute Books. While recently looking for the records of a pupil who joined the Schools in the 1850’s we made an important discovery - bound books of the earliest Petitions for Admission to the Schools and reports of some of the meetings when these petitions were considered. This means we may be able to provide even more information to relatives not only about these early scholars but also about those whose applications were not successful."
An alternative lunch break event will be showing and discussion of a short film made in 1943 at Barns Hostel and School in Scotland, with a narrative added by its founding Warden, David Wills, in 1973.
Barns, the subject of David Wills' 1945 book, "The Barns Experiment", was established as a project of the Edinburgh Society of Friends at Barns House near Peebles in 1943, as an evacuation hostel and school for unbilletable boys. David Wills was an English Friend who, from 1936 until the end of 1939, had pioneered psychoanalytically-oriented group and environmental methods of working with difficult and disturbed young men at Hawkspur Camp in Essex, and is recognised as one of the seminal figures in the history of residential therapeutic child care in Britain. Barns Hostel and School was relaunched after the end of the war as Barns School, one of the first residential therapeutic schools for maladjusted children in Scotland. It closed in 1953.
COST
The cost is £75 per person (individual membership) or £90 (institutional membership), to include conference, lunch, light refreshments, and complementary one-year membership in the Child Care History Network for 2009-2010.
For those interested in attending informal pre-conference discussions at the Centre on the evening before the conference, or who simply wish good company and a fresh start (or end!) to the day, bed and breakfast accommodation is available at £34.50 (incl VAT) double occupancy, or £40 (incl VAT) single, by contacting Maureen Ward or Joanna Jansen at the Planned Environment Therapy Trust, Barns Conference Centre +44 (0) 1242 621200 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
To book a place at the conference contact Maureen Ward or Joanna Jansen at The Planned Environment Therapy Trust on +44 (0) 1242 621200 or print the booking form on the CCHN website and send it to CCHN Conference, c/o Planned Environment Therapy Trust, Church Lane , Toddington, Cheltenham, Glos. United Kingdom GL54 5DQ
BOOKING FORM
CCHN 2009 Autumn Conference
Alternatively, pay for the conference online through the PayPal facility below, being sure to complete and send the booking form or ring the PETT Conference Office at +44 (0) 1242 621200
BOOKING FORM
Please reserve the following conference place One (individual membership) £75.00 One (institutional membership) £90.00 
The AGM of the Child Care History Network will be held before the start of the morning proceedings, for CCHN members and those who would like to become members.