Public Inquiries into Abuse of Children in Residential Care

The late Brian Corby was Professor of Social Work Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. His research interests lay in the field of child abuse and social work practice, and he was the author of several books and articles on this subject. Alan Doig is Professor of Public Services Management at the Business School of Liverpool John Moores University. He has published widely in the field of fraud and corruption in the public services and has a particular interest in public accountability. Vicki Roberts is a Research Assistant at the Liverpool John Moores University. She has research experience in a variety of health and social services settings in the voluntary sector and local government.

It provides a concise and contextualised insight into residential childcare and public policy surrounding it, and as such should become a standard text on social work courses. It should also be required reading for existing social workers and policy makers who can appear so readily seduced by prevailing orthodoxies that abuse can be regulated out of systems.

• Introduction. Public Inquiries into Residential Abuse of Children. 1. Setting the Context -A Brief History of Residential Care for Children. 2. Children, Society and Child Abuse. 3. Public Policy, Public Inquiries and Public Concern. 4. Inquiries into the Abuse of Children in the Community. 5. Institutional Abuse and Public Inquiries in the late 1980s and 1990s. 6. The Events Leading up to the North Wales Tribunal of Inquiry into Child Abuse. 7. The North Wales Tribunal of Inquiry - Issues of Process. 8. The North Wales Tribunal - Outcomes. 9. The Impact of Public Inquiries on Residential Care Now. 10. The Future of Inquiries into Residential Abuse. Appendix 1. A Table of Public Inquiries into Child Abuse from 1945 to present day. Appendix 2. Chronolgy of Events Leading up to Announcement of Tribunal of Inquiry. References. Index.