Introduction

This chapter sets the scene by introducing Mary and Jake. Mary is six years old when, in 1892, she is taken on by the Waifs and Strays Society, one of Britain’s largest child care agencies from the late 19th century to the present day, and sent to a children’s home. Fast forward 124 years, and Jake has been in care since he was three years old. He is currently 21 and has spent time in various children’s homes, as well as in foster care. What both Mary and Jake have in common is their personal history of being in the care system, as well as their material context, placing them on the margins with no privileges at all. This book focuses on young people like Mary and Jake, the group of children referred to as ‘victims’ – a term used for the most disadvantaged children who have spent time in care, have complex needs and have had the most damaging pre-care and post-care experiences. The starting point for this research is the notion that many of the issues that concern contemporary studies regarding child safeguarding and child protection have a historical trajectory that informs the present The key questions here (and the focus of this book) are what mechanisms and causal factors are at play, and what is the legacy of the ‘deserving/undeserving’ paradigm in mental health support and safeguarding in childhood? Drawing on critical realism, I argue that, to fully understand the lasting impact of the ‘deserving/undeserving’ paradigm, it is imperative to place this in a stratified discursive and non-discursive context, taking account of causal mechanisms at three levels – personal, material and institutional.