ABSTRACT
One of the main strategies employed was the ‘rescue’ of children from parents unable or unwilling to rear them satisfactorily. These beliefs reflected a potent cocktail of compassion, evangelism and self-interest on the part of the middle-classes who paid the taxes and subscriptions to finance the Industrial Schools and children’s homes that were to provide the break with the past. Doubts over the adequacy of provision for children ‘deprived of a normal home life’ were being raised even before the upheavals of the Second World War. Research has suggested that improving standards for children looked after away from home have all too often failed to keep up with rising living standards and expectations. As statutory agencies abandon the task, it is usually the family, frequently identified as damaging or deficient, which takes up the role of main supporter of children and young adolescents.
