Governing the Family Also by Nigel Parton The Politics of Child Abuse Governing the Fatnily Child Care, Child Protection and the State Nigel Parton Macmillan Education ISBN 978-0-333-54122-7 ISBN 978-1-349-21441-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21441-9 © Nigel Parton, 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1991 ISBN 978-0-312-06171-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Parton, Nigel. Governing the family: child care, child protection and the state /Nigel Parton. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-06171-5 1. Child welfare-Great Britain. 2. Child abuse-Great Britain. 3. Child abuse-Great Britain-Prevention. 4. Family social work -Great Britain. I. Title. HV751.A6P24 1991 362.7' 68-dc20 90-28660 CIP For Rita and Bob Contents List of Tables Vlll Preface IX 1. Social Work, Social Regulation and the Family 1 2. Child Care, Prevention and Partnership 19 3. Child Abuse, Authority and Risk 52 4. Sexual Abuse, the Cleveland Affair and the Private Family 79 5. Co-ordination, Management and Social Assessment 116 6. The Children Act 1989: Reconstructing the Consensus 147 7. A Contemporary Political Economy of Child Protection 193 Notes 215 Bibliography 225 Index 239 Vll List of Tables 2.1 Number of children removed to a place of safety during the year April 1 to March 31 in England 1978-84 35 3.1 Number of children removed to a place of safety in England, years ending 31 March 1983-8 54 3.2 Child abuse and neglect high-risk checklist 61 3.3 Carlile Report hierarchy of state interventions in the family 75 Vill Preface In some respects this study can be read as simply taking further the story and critical analysis first developed in The Politics of Child Abuse (1985b). In other ways, however, it is quite different. During the 1980s it seemed that a major shift emerged in the way the state attempted to prevent harm to children living in the family in Britain. Rather than emphasise the dual and sometimes competing concerns of stopping child abuse and improving child care, increasingly the focus was on a new activity - child protection. The 1989 Children Act and the various official guidance to professionals in the wake of the Cleveland inquiry gave expression to a new set of concepts, rules and practices which attempted to overcome the apparent crisis which seemed to characterise the child care system during the period. This could be seen as part of wider changes in state formation and social regulation in Britain in the 1980s illustrated by a series of measures affecting the social services and social policy more generally. In order to make sense of these changes, a rather different conceptual and analytic toolkit was required therefore. Rather than being centrally concerned with analysing the emergence and impact of the problem of child abuse as previously, I am here concerned with, on the one hand, discussing a broader range oflegal, regulatory and interventive strategies, while on the other, analysing in some detail the debates, recommenda tions for reform and the processes of policy change. The book therefore combines both a different conceptual framework and a closer attention to detail in order to explain the emergence of a new discourse focused around notions of child protection and family autonomy. The book aims to help professionals - particularly social lX x Preface workers - working in the field, understand the nature of these changes and their impact on both their own role and responsi bilities and the experiences of the men, women and children with whom they work. It also aims to provide a case study of the processes of change in social policy and make a contribu tion to current theoretical debates about the nature of social regulation in contemporary society. I have accumulated numerous debts in the process of com pleting the project. Some of the ideas which inform the book first saw the light of day in previous smaller collaborative projects (Parton and Martin 1989; Parton and Parton 1989a, 1989b). Both Norma Martin and Christine Parton will recog nise elements of that work here and must also take some responsibility for reawakening my interest and concerns in the area. However, the opportunity to carry out the research which informs the book and the time to write it arose when I was lucky enough to be awarded a Hallsworth Fellowship during 1989-90. I would therefore like to thank both the Fellowship and the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at Manchester University for welcoming me and providing such a conducive environment for intensive study. Caroline Glen dinning and Jean Ashton were crucial in this respect - Caroline for both putting up with me and offering support and Jean for being so good-humoured and meticulous with the typing of what were supposed to be different drafts but in effect were very scrappy bits of paper. Barbara Bys assisted with the typing. Similarly, my long-suffering colleagues in the Social Work section at Huddersfield Polytechnic let me take up the Fellowship at a time of rapid change and severe resource constraint - one suspects, though, they coped better in my absence than if I had been present. However, numerous others have had an impact on its con tent via their generous contributions of time and the sharing of their experiences and expertise. I would particularly like to thank Peter Smith and David Hinchliffe for their interest well beyond what could reasonably be hoped for. Discussions with Dennis Allen, Louis Blom-Cooper, Rupert Hughes, Barbara Kahan, Tina Lyons, Christine McKay, Tony Morrison, Neil Patrick, Mary Ryan, Nigel Speight, Jane Tunstill, and Avril