The Place of Fostering in Social Work

Summary To foster children is no longer regarded as the main objectiveof the child care services. However, fostering is once againa matter of social work and public debate. The paper explainsthat more types of children are now being assessed as requiringfostering at a time when social service departments are findingit difficult to expand their number of foster homes. This greaterdemand for foster homes coincides with recent researches whichhelp to clarify the nature of fostering. Accordingly, a distinctioncan be made between 'exclusive' and 'inclusive' fosterings.It is considered that a conflict exists between popularity ofexclusive fostering and research findings which stress the valueof inclusive fostering. Research is also identifying the contributionwhich social workers can make in the fostering field. But thedesired inputs of training, low caseloads and staff stabilitypose problems for social work management. Finally, the researchfindings discussed in the paper are used to argue that the forthcomingChildren Bill is not only based on false assumptions about thebehaviour of natural parents but will also promote exclusiverather than inclusive fosterings. A plea is made that childwelfare policy be seen in a larger context of social reform     

Poverty: Consensus and Alternatives

Summary The purpose of this article is to examine the published viewsof two leading politicians who can claim to speak for theirparties. From their discussion of poverty and social deprivation(and the terms will be used interchangeably) an attempt willbe made to emonstrate that their policies or proposals reston similar assumptions about society and a similar model ofpoverty. Their consensus of approach will mean that no alternativepolicies are being seriously mooted within the party politicalsystem. Their assumptions will be examined critically and thesuggestion made that an approach deriving from an alternativemodel is required to counter poverty.     

Family centres

SUMMARY. Family centres have multiplied in number of late but as yet analytical studies about them are few. In this paper the results are presented of interviews with the staff, users and ‘outsiders’ of three centres. From this it is possible to deduce three models of family centres. The models are then used to discuss how they serve differing kinds of consumers and how each best fits into the statutory and voluntary sectors This article is based on material contained in Boh Holman's hook Putting Families First: Prevention and Child Care, to be published by Macmillan Education in 1988. It appears here by permission of the publishers     

THE OPTIMAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FINANCING POLICY: DOES THE LEVEL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MATTER?

This paper explores how the optimal mode of public finance depends on the level of economic development. The theoretical analysis suggests that in the presence of capital market imperfection and liquidity shocks, the detrimental effect of inflation on growth is stronger (weaker) at lower (higher) levels of economic development. Consequently, income taxation (seigniorage) is a relatively less distortionary way of financing public expenditure for low-income (high-income) countries. We provide empirical support for our model's predictions using a panel of 21 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and 40 developing countries observed over the period 1972–1999. ( JEL E44, E6, H6, O42)     

Prevention: the Victorian Legacy

Summary The personal social services did not receive a statutory mandateto undertake preventive work with deprived children until 1963.This paper looks at the history of child care services in thenineteenth and twentieth centuries to find some explanationsfor the delay in promoting prevention. The two major child caresystems during the Victorian era were the Poor Law and the voluntarychildren's societies. In terms of methods of care and philosophy,the two are often held as contrasts. But, in terms of wishingto rescue children from evil parents and of changing their charactersby educating them while completely removed from their naturalfamilies, they had much in common. Thus, both state and voluntaryservices exerted a strong force opposed to policies of helpingnatural parents to cope with their own or of rehabilitatingthem. Changing social and political conditions in the earlypart of the twentieth century appeared to give the prospectof different practices. However, these failed to emerge andsome explanations are put forward with particular referenceto the survival of the Poor Law and the stagnation of the voluntarybodies. Finally, an analysis is made of what steps had to betaken at the end of the 1930s if prevention was to become apart of the social services.