Services for Children and Their Families

Services for Children and their Families: Aspects of Child Care for Social Workers is a collection of essays describing the level that the child care service has reached on the eve of the reorganization of program. These essays contain the values, ideas, opinions, and philosophies that are part of the social services. These articles cover the period from 1870 to 1970; in 1971 child care services became the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services. Some papers review the influences—historical, economical or geographical—that make the environment where the social worker operates, of which he or she should be aware of their effects. Another essay discusses the contributions of the Children Act 1948 in which it recognizes the rights of the child as an individual human being. It has only been recently that any large-scale use of resources to the preventive work of child care has occurred. One paper addresses the challenges for social workers to re-examine themselves, their responsibilities to society, their identification with certain social controls, and the structures and ways that society can show its concern for children and their families. This collection can benefit sociologists, economists, historians, students and academicians doing sociological research, as well as policy makers involved in social services and welfare.