© British Association of Social Workers
Should any Child be Placed in Care? The Forgotten Great Debate 1841–74
Philip Seed, M.A. (Hist., Cantab.), has spent most of the past 20 years in social work education and practice, including residential work. He is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Aberdeen and author of The Expansion of Social Work in Britain (Routledge, 1973)
Summary
This paper first describes a system of Day Industrial Feeding Schools in the mid-nineteenth century known as the 'Aberdeen System'. As originally conceived, it challenged the whole idea of residential care of children. We argue that while Sheriff Watson, with whom the schools are usually associated, is generally given a paragraph in histories of social work or of education, the social movement with which he was associated is entirely overlooked. This movement gave first importance to family ties, for religious reasons, and then argued on rational grounds the advantages of a day care system. It attempted to meet within such a system the needs of the whole child in his family and community setting. It also sought to avoid the processes of stigmatization, arguing that service provision should be based on recognition of children's rights. We consider briefly the ideological context of the movement and finally look very briefly at some of the implications of the material for social service provision today. We suggest that greater historical awareness could enhance opportunities for developing imaginative policies in relation to the development of social work services