This book gives a comprehensive account of sixty-five years of British childhood from 1959-2024, a period of immense social, cultural, and political change. The chapters survey the significant changes in education, physical and mental health, social care, lifestyle, the role of the family, child protection, Immigration, disability and class, and the covid-19 pandemic. These include the move from grammar to comprehensive schools, child mental health crises, the internet, mobile phones and social media, and the changing adult attitudes toward childhood and adolescence. The book shows us how and why the lives of children have come about today, and considers the great variation in children’s lives depending on family income and ethnicity, and looks at the need for cooperation between services. Graham argues that, in general, there has been an improvement in the richness and quality of children’s lives but there are many who are falling behind. The voices of contemporary children and their carers/parents are interwoven throughout the book.
