ABSTRACT
The child care services initiated in the wake of the Curtis Report (1946) continued to develop in the 1960s when, as has been shown, they sought to prevent the breakdown of families and to bring juvenile delinquents within the care system, and again in 1971 when as part of the Seebohm proposals they were merged with other local-authority services. For the most part these years were marked not only by expansion, but also by a sense of optimism, a belief that it was possible to change people’s lives, to enhance their experiences, in effect to patch up the consequences of economic and social deprivation.1 However, by the mid-1970s, if not before, a feeling of disquiet had arisen within social work circles over certain child care issues, such as adoption and fostering. Other criticisms concerned the damaging effects of ‘drift’ in care, so that a campaign was launched as the ‘Permanence Movement’, which sought early decision-making. This gave rise to another opposition lobby, the Family Rights Group, which campaigned in defence of parents against what it saw as premature decisions.2
