Forgotten Children

Release year: 2000

Pages: 276

Publisher: Vision Paperbacks

ISBN: 1901250474

Softback | Online

What people are saying..

I have known about this scandal for years. 40 years ago I was lecturing to residential social workers ( from Cheshire and N Wales) and made comments about peadophilia. I was threatened by some “housefathers” that they would “get your children taken into care” and removed from the class as my teaching was not good enough ( the only time in a 40-year teaching/ lecturing career that this happened.) I am delighted that Wolmar’s book is now getting the attention it deserves.

- Christine Hodson

The book is a welcome investigation into the abuse of children in residential care. It brings together previously scattered information about police investigations around Britain into allegations of sexual and other abuse of children in residential care. It also gives a comprehensive history of residential care for children and background to the rise in awareness of sexual abuse in residential care. The author tries to find the elusive answer to the question “Why did it happen?” and “will it happen again?”
Christian Wolmar also carefully examines the case for care workers who claim to be wrongly accused and those who state that these people who had been in care, mostly male, are making allegations so that they can get compensation. He comes down strongly on the side of the accusers.
I recommend this book. It is by a well informed journalist, well written, and made interesting and readable.
My only criticism is an absence of a bibliography although there is a good index.
I will be recommending this book to the care staff and others who attend my training courses on safer care for children.

- Amazon Reviewer

‘Forgotten Children is the standard work on the child-abuse scandals of the Nineties’

- The Observer

‘A fascinating study of institutional child abuse.’

- Julie Bindel, The Guardian

‘If you are in any way affected by child sexual abuse, this book is a must read. Absolute essential reading. The truth as it is and was.’

- Shy Keenan, Phoenix Survivors

In the 1960s and 1970s, children’s departments were abolished and social workers all became generalists who had clients across the spectrum of need. As a result, thousands more children were taken into care by local authorities and many of them were put into children’s homes. Disaster ensued, with a high proportion of them being abused and mistreated by those charged with looking after them. The legacy of this disaster is still being felt; major police investigations have been launched across the country and many are ongoing.

“There isn’t a photo of me before I was 14. It’s as if I didn’t exist. Children in children’s homes are suffering from trauma, from shock… They are used to the unexpected and sexual abuse is unexpected.” ‘John’.

Why did it happen? Despite several official investigations, none have attempted to explain the underlying causes of institutional abuse and offered a coherent explanation of what happened. Forgotten Children is the ground-breaking first book to aim to do so.

Forgotten Children charts the history of children’s homes, how they were neglected over the years and, with untrained and sometimes unsuitable staff, why they became preying grounds for paedophiles. Many institutions thought it in the best interests of the children to keep their parents at bay, forbidding letter writing and visits. So there was no one to turn to.It also shows how changes in social services provision in the 1970s helped to create the disaster.

It looks, too, at the widespread abuse which took place in homes run by religious orders and gives a previously unheard voice to many of the victims. The book then also follows the children’s claims for compensation, the issues over false claims of abuse and suggests ways to prevent a reoccurrence of the scandal.

Author Christian Wolmar analyses the roles of the institutions which ‘allowed’ this scandal to sweep the country: local authorities and charities that let abuse go unchecked in their homes; central government, which failed to heed the warning signs; the police who initially ignored all complaints; the social workers who did not listen to the children.

The legacy of these scandals reaches beyond their immediate victims, many of whom are too traumatised to lead functional lives or have even committed suicide; prisons are full of the former residents of children’s homes whose crimes have, in turn, created a raft of new victims.

Forgotten Children includes interviews with victims, care workers, lawyers and police, presenting a gripping critique of children’s care in the 1970s and 1980s and shedding light on the underlying causes of institutional abuse.

Christian Wolmar’s book is sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which publishes research into social issues. After writing Forgotten Children, Christian submitted evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Adoption and Children Bill.

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What people are saying..

I have known about this scandal for years. 40 years ago I was lecturing to residential social workers ( from Cheshire and N Wales) and made comments about peadophilia. I was threatened by some “housefathers” that they would “get your children taken into care” and removed from the class as my teaching was not good enough ( the only time in a 40-year teaching/ lecturing career that this happened.) I am delighted that Wolmar’s book is now getting the attention it deserves.

- Christine Hodson

The book is a welcome investigation into the abuse of children in residential care. It brings together previously scattered information about police investigations around Britain into allegations of sexual and other abuse of children in residential care. It also gives a comprehensive history of residential care for children and background to the rise in awareness of sexual abuse in residential care. The author tries to find the elusive answer to the question “Why did it happen?” and “will it happen again?”
Christian Wolmar also carefully examines the case for care workers who claim to be wrongly accused and those who state that these people who had been in care, mostly male, are making allegations so that they can get compensation. He comes down strongly on the side of the accusers.
I recommend this book. It is by a well informed journalist, well written, and made interesting and readable.
My only criticism is an absence of a bibliography although there is a good index.
I will be recommending this book to the care staff and others who attend my training courses on safer care for children.

- Amazon Reviewer

‘Forgotten Children is the standard work on the child-abuse scandals of the Nineties’

- The Observer

‘A fascinating study of institutional child abuse.’

- Julie Bindel, The Guardian

‘If you are in any way affected by child sexual abuse, this book is a must read. Absolute essential reading. The truth as it is and was.’

- Shy Keenan, Phoenix Survivors

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