News

By Brian Corby, Alan Doig and Vicki Roberts.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

£16.95

ISBN 1 85302 895 9

The title of this excellent book belies the breadth of its subject matter.

Not confining itself to an overview of public inquiries, it explores the social, economic, political, professional, historical and human factors and pressures that inform residential child care, and cuts to the heart of many of the contentious issues surrounding child welfare and child abuse.

The text is extremely well laid out and cross-referenced, the arguments clear, balanced, structured and fully developed. The writing has an unusual organic quality that allows considerable insight into the nature of state care and understanding of its many tragic, and often avoidable, failures. Appendix I lists 81 (not including the north Wales tribunal) public inquiries that have taken place in Britain between 1945 and 1999, alongside a repetitious litany of recommendations begging the question of whether anything has been learned in more than half a century.

The public inquiry is examined on many fronts: as an investigative tool, a political expedient, a professional salve, a learning instrument, a means to allay public disquiet. The capacity for function and dysfunction is teased out, the many complex elements underpinning and controlling state care are elucidated, not the least of which are the political and professional agendas.

Considerable light is thrown on the tensions inherent in the provision of state care and on its profound entanglements with, and dependence on, economics, politics and societal values - a clear statement that such care does not exist either in a vacuum or a professional capsule. Three chapters are devoted to the north Wales tribunal, as the authors regard this as "an excellent case example of the working of inquiries and an important event to report on and analyse".

The authors support the need for residential provision, and develop recommendations for the future from analyses of the past, making crucial observations which are, in fact, very relevant to the care of all needy and vulnerable individuals.

They have produced an exceptionally important and enlightening work that should be required reading for all social work and public service professionals and will no doubt become a classic in its field.

Alison Taylor was the child care social worker who exposed abuse in North Wales children's homes. She is now a novelist.