ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the trauma and disturbance associated with severe deprivation and abuse by children and families can impact on the professionals involved in their care, interfering with their capacity to think about and provide containment for the children and their carers and thereby compounding their deprivation. The aim of the time-limited pilot project was to find a way of ensuring that children in the care of the local social services department, who are perceived as one of the most deprived and needy groups, are able to access child mental health services for assessment and treatment for emotional and behavioural difficulties, where appropriate. The team managers, particularly when there are changes and reorganizations going on at a level above them, may themselves feel at times rather under-supported and under-resourced, always at risk of being blamed, and criticized - like the deprived birth parents and foster carers with whom they work.
