ABSTRACT
A counter-reformation occurred in educational social work as it did in school curriculum. In the early 1970s the expectations of teachers, social workers and parents concerned with the urban child began to alter. Like the move to middle ground in the curriculum debate, the social work counter-reformation had visible impact on life in schools. Teachers and public became alarmed about child-battering neglect, and teenage suicide arising from unhappiness at school. Several child deaths prompted soul-searching and widely-publicized legal enquiries. The names of three children in particular, Stephen Meurs, Maria Colwell and Tina Wilson, were to become engraved on the public conscience. These children were the tip of the iceberg of endemic maladjustment and unhappiness in the urban setting; they were the victims of human fallibility and failure of the professional system. Local government reorganization, new social work training following the Seebohm Report, 1 changing children's legislation and pastoral care systems in school had all proved remarkably ineffective in providing help where it was needed.
