ABSTRACT

This chapter sets out the background to the Henley Safe Children Project, some of the characteristics of the area and the ways in which information was gathered. The Henley Safe Children Project was an action research project, initially funded through Home Office Safer Cities and later supported by the NSPCC. When the project was planned, the Henley ward had the highest number of children on the Child Protection Register — overall and proportionally — for any area of the city. The ward had a very high overall crime rate, but local police figures showed a substantial concentration in the part of the ward where high numbers of childhood accidents had been noted. A very high proportion of children to adults in an area of severe unemployment and low income, where many health problems are experienced, suggest a level of difficulty and stress within the neighbourhood which would demand exceptional personal resources to handle.