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The history of childhood and welfare in Britain through the eyes of children. Children’s Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain brings together the latest historical research on welfare provision by the state, charities and families from 1830 to 1980. Demonstrating how the young were integral to the making, interpretation, delivery and impact of welfare services, the chapters consider a wide range of investments in young people’s lives, including residential institutions, emigration schemes, hospitals and clinics, schools, social housing and familial care. Drawing upon thousands of personal testimonies, including a wealth of writing by children themselves, the book shows that we can only understand the history and impact of welfare if we listen to children’s experiences.
'...this is an engaging and accessible collection that contributes numerous insights to the historiographies of childhood, welfare, and modern Britain, and it is sure to be of interest to researchers and students working in any of these areas. This enjoyable book concludes that “[c]hildren’s experiences of welfare are important, not merely because children are investments for the future, but because their lives matter now” (278) and it should prove valuable to anyone interested in children’s welfare, regardless of their disciplinary or academic affiliations.'
Introduction
1.Children’s experiences of the Children’s Friend Society emigration scheme to the colonial Cape, 1833-41: snapshots from compliance to rebellion
Rebecca Swartz
2.‘Their mother is a violent drunken woman who has been several times in prison’: ‘saving’ children from their families, 1850-1900
Gillian Lamb
3.‘Dear Sir, remember me often if possible’: family, belonging, and identity for children in care in Britain, c. 1870-1920
Claudia Soares
4.Child philanthropy, family care and young bodies in Britain 1876-1914
Siân Pooley
5.‘Everything was done by the clock’: agency in children’s convalescent homes, 1932-61
Maria Marven
6.‘The Borough Council have done a great deal ... I hope they continue to do so in the future’: children, community and the welfare state, 1941-55
Jonathan Taylor
7.Welfare and constraint on children’s agency: the case of post-war UK child migration programmes to Australia
Gordon Lynch
8.‘The school that I’d like’: children and teenagers write about education in England and Wales, 1945-79
Laura Tisdall
9.Making their own fun: children’s play in high-rise estates in Glasgow in the 1960s and 1970s
Valerie Wright
10.Teenagers, sex and the Brook Advisory Centres, 1964-85
Caroline Rusterholz
Postscript: Insights for policy-makers and practitioners