Marilyn Monroe : her thoughts on childhood and being in care

In her recent essay about Marilyn Monroe, “A Rumbling of Things Unknown,” Jacqueline Rose reminds us that Marilyn Monroe was with little question ‘born on the wrong side of the tracks.’ Marilyn spent her childhood moving from one foster home to another in Los Angeles, living for a few snatched years with her mother who had reclaimed her before being taken away, watched by her daughter, to a mental home. When Marilyn was sent to an orphanage at the age of nine, she protested she was no orphan, since her mother was still alive, and this was something she continued to insist upon until the end of her own life.

In later years, Marilyn Monroe observed that while her 'childhood experiences had given her an understanding of the needs of the young, sick and persecuted,' her own ‘lack of any consistent love and caring' had resulted in her having 'a mistrust and fear of the world.'

In her final interview for Life Magazine in 1962 she said, 'I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.'

Reference : Jacqueline Rose “A Rumbling of Things Unknown” in The London Review of Books, Vol.34 No.8, 26 April,2012, pp 29-34.

This news and observation item first appeared on the goodenoughcaring home page at http://www.goodenoughcaringcom

on Friday, April 20th, 2012

Dealing with Wayne and Waynetta : the threat of the feral underclasses and their offspring

In the 1990s Harry Enfield's council house tenants Wayne and Waynetta were characters in a television comedy series who amused some, if not all of us. According to those who want to run things in the United Kingdom, the imaginary land of Wayne and Waynetta and their kin has come alive and is creating mayhem wherever polite society seeks to sustain itself. We can reveal this now because those two great bastions of our society, the government and the media, are pinpointing and exposing a whole catalogue of scandals which they fear may fast bring down the civilisation we have come to cherish. Among the many items on this catalogue are : -

• illiterate, poorly educated child care workers;
• schools failing because the teaching is bad;
• schools failing because the parents are bad;
• young people who riot (for instance the be-hooded children of Wayne and Waynetta);
• social workers of various kinds who encourage, and join in, the rioting;
• school students, who are all sitting for public examinations that are far too easy to pass;
• students studying inferior new-fangled courses in schools and in the newer universities (particularly those newer universities that don't attract students from public schools) which apparently do not provide them with knowledge or skills worthy of deserving appointment to gainful employment;
• money grabbing local authority social workers and teachers who, by working with children and families living in poorer areas where property prices are low, are being paid far too much.

The list goes on and on.

As yet we need not be unduly alarmed because the two afore-mentioned bulwarks of knowledge and rectitude - our government and our media - conscientiously and consistently, not to say persistently, remind us of those things we ought to do and those we ought not to do as well as helpfully proferring final and definitive solutions for how we can put all these dreadful things right. To facilitate getting ourselves back on the moral track the institutions which represent the art of the possible and the might of the pen have gathered a group of hired helpers and given it a mandate to cure us of the fear and dread we are being pressed to feel and to vouchsafe for us, all that they believe we should hold dear for our children and young people. This elite group contains:-

• a number of senior inspectors of various children's services (including Ofsted work contracted out to the private Tribal Group) as well as some academic researchers who are happy to take the government's shilling and make the necessary adjustments to their scripts;
• government appointed gurus who, while making a packet for themselves, claim to have all the answers about how to get skivers back to work;
• child behaviour experts who busy themselves exposing our general failure to get children to behave well both in the classroom and on the street and who can deliver for us with double-underlined, boxed up, sealed and ultimate certainty, children and young people who will never step out of line;
• the high-minded founders of the new "free" schools who make sure that the unemployed,the obese,the nicotine inhaling, the cheap alcohol imbibing, the welfare scrounging feral underclasses living in the nearby council estate are prevented from sending their kids to pollute the atmosphere of fresh and fragrant "free" schools.

Like our first list this one is followed by etcetera after etcetera.

There may be some things for us to learn from all this. Firstly, dare we suggest that one such thing might be that it is possible to conclude that the Wayne and Waynetta legend is situated between fantasy and stereotype, while each one of us is a unique and real person deserving of respect? Secondly would we be unduly opening ourselves to justified ridicule if we were to suggest that the "fear and dread" being drummed up by our government and media together with the concomitant "cures" of their experts rest somewhere between dubious and spurious?

This opinion item first appeared on January 22nd, 2012 on the goodenoughcaring website homepage at http://www.goodenoughcaringcom

The economic apartheid continues unfettered : government minister says it is right that poor families "have to move to a part of town they can afford to live in."

Last night, 22nd January, 2012, Chris Grayling, the Conservative-led coalition government's employment minister said, while defending the government's Welfare Reform Bill, that the reforms would force poorer families to find new accommodation. Mr Grayling argued these were families "who would have to move to a part of town they can afford to live in, but," he insisted, "surely that is right."
These remarks are a consequence of the government's decision to place a £500 per week cap on the welfare benefits any family can receive regardless of the family's size can. Opponents of this aspect of the Reform Bill  -  who include among their number,  bishops of the Church of England and some members of the Liberal Democrat party, including its former leader Lord Ashdown  -  argue that this cap places children who are born into a larger family at a disadvantage.
Sources : "The Independent" at http//independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welfare-reforms and Pienaar's Politics broadcast on BBC 5 live on January 22nd, 2012.



January 23rd,  late news extra :  the House of Lords has voted against the £500 a week cap but government ministers remain determined to push the £500 cap through the House of Commons.
Source : BBC Radio 5 live news, 20.30, January 23rd, 2012.


This news and opinion item first appeared on January 22nd, 2012 on the goodenoughcaring website homepage at http://www.goodenoughcaringcom

The parliamentary epetition to re-establish the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care has closed. Where now for residential child care?

The epetition, initiated by David Lane on the No.10 Downing Street website asking the government to re-establish the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care or its equivalent to provide leadership, support and advice for residential child care services has closed and has attracted insufficient signatures to be considered a subject for debate in the House of Commons. It was perhaps predictable that residential child care would not raise the 100,000 signatures needed for this to happen. At least the petition provided an opportunity to publicise residential child care's need for greater recognition and support. However, the number of signatures the petition garnered, 268, may be cause for disappointment. This is not because 256,645 have signed to end "all the financial welfare benefits of those convicted of a criminal act" during the riots early this year, not because 134,638 have signed to end "mass immigration" nor indeed because 39,173 have petitioned to insist that all Formula 1 motor races should be on "free to air" television. All these may tell us something about what is currently important to those who are signing petitions but they are issues which have a greater constituency than residental child care. No, the disappointment may be that the number of signatories for re-establishing the NCERCC represents such a sparse response from a population which even at a minimal estimate includes 100,000 adults residing in the United Kingdom who have been, at some time in their lives, in residential child care or residential education (excluding the private "public school" system) and probably more than 25,000 people who are or have been directly or indirectly employed in the residential care and education sector. Given this (admittedly estimated) number the total of 268 signatures on this petition might be thought exceedingly low. This may tell us that relatively few people in this sector of care had felt they benefited from the services provided by NCERCC but certainly the responses received by goodenoughcaring relating to the closure of NCERCC were unanimous in their praise for the Centre. It may be saying that most are content with the recognition, training and support they receive. Another conclusion might be drawn that those who have been in any way involved in residential child care are almost invariably critical of it, or indifferent about it. Alternatively,the result may not represent criticism or indifference but simply demonstrate a lack of awareness of government epetitions, yet the possibility remains that the relative dearth of signatories is a reflection of the pessimism within residential child care; a sense of "Why bother ? Our resources will be cut whatever we say or do." If this were so, it would be an unhelpful pedestal on which to be stuck, given that in these times services to children and young people are diminishing at a significant - not to say alarming - rate, and at the best of times residential child care services have not ranked high on a politician's list of vote winning issues. Now may be a good time, for all those involved in residential child care, including those who support it as teachers, as publicists, as administrators and as politicians to fall in line with the spirit underpinning David Lane's petition. This calls for the development of an articulate and cogent argument for the provision of high quality residential care for those children and young people whose needs it can undoubtably be the best at meeting.

Evidence that determined and well thought out argument can bring change is evident in Essex County Council's decision to postpone its plans to close 7 of its 8 children's homes following an application by a 17 years old young man for a judicial review of the Council's closure plan. The young man argued that the authority, in taking the decision to close the homes, had failed to take account of his individual needs. The High Court Judge thought the authority's decision to close the homes by December 15th was unreasonable. Essex County Council has now issued a legally enforcable undertaking not to close any of its homes as long as those homes are needed by its "settled" looked after children and young people (Lauren Higgs,CYP Now November 28th, 2011). This change of policy may only represent a postponement but the young man's determination to stand up successfully for his right to have continuity of care in his children's home is a triumph for him and a fillip for residential child care.


This opinion piece first appeared on December 27th, 2011, on the goodenoughcaring website home page at
 http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/ 

Flying through an ethereal letterbox near you : issue 10 of the goodenoughcaring Journal lands on December 15th

The new issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online in mid-December. The new issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online in mid-December. In our last issue John Stein wrote about the influence of mothers and so one of the themes of this next issue is the relatively less considered matter of fatherhood and aspects of this are explored in a poem by Jan Noble and in articles by Joyce Carol Oates, Alex Russon, Mark Smith and John Stein. Marion Bennathan writes about nurture groups in schools and Cynthia Cross recollects the nature of residential child care in the 1960s and compares it with current practice. Jeremy Millar makes a personal assessment of the work and thoughts of Chris Beedell while Moira Strachan discusses the relevance of a child observation placement toward her development as a social care worker. Noel Howard has written a moving review of Danny Ellis' CD 800 Voices : the heartache and the healing. John Molloy's remarkable review of Richard Webster's book The Secret of Bryn Estyn which is currently on this page in the section about Richard Webster will also be published. News of further articles will appear here within the next few days.

This notice first appeared on the goodenoughcaring homepage at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/ on December 1st, 2011

International Seminar on the History of Child Care

Child Care:Learning from History

An International Seminar on the History of Child Care will be hosted by Scotland's New Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children and the Child Care History Network (CCHN) on Monday, 7th November, 2011 at Jury's Inn, Glasgow.

The aim of this international seminar is to consider issues concerning the history of child care, in particular focusing on lessons which have been learnt which can affect current and future practice.The seminar will be based partly on the experience of the host country, Scotland,while speakers and participants from other countries will also be involved. It will cover statutory, voluntary and private child care services, and both personal and organisational histories.

The seminar will present an exciting and varied range of speakers.

The content of the seminar will be of relevance to managers of child care services and practitioners, as well as regulators, academics and researchers. There will be additional activities before and after the Seminar, including the opportunity for study visits to local projects on Tuesday 8th November.

Confirmed Speakers,in programme order, include:

Professor David Divine (England): Formerly James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, Dalhousie University, Canada, 2004 - 2009, currently undertaking furtherpostgraduate study at Durham University.

Keith White (England): Director of Mill Grove Residential Community in East London.

Mark Smith (Scotland): Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh and formerly lecturer at the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care.

Moyra Hawthorn (Scotland): Lecturer at the New Centre.

Zachari Duncalf (Scotland): Research Fellow at the New Centre. Angela Davis (England): British Academy funded post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of History at the University of Warwick.

Beno Schraepen (Belgium): Graduate of the University of Ghent and founder of INCENA (the study centre for inclusion and enablement) in partnership with the University of Antwerp.

Delyth Edwards (Northern Ireland): Completing a PhD at the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University Belfast.

Christine Oliver (England): Senior Research Officer at the Thomas Coram Research Unit.

Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent (England): Director of Operations / Deputy CEO at Coram, the UK’s oldest children’s charity.

Ian Milligan (Scotland): Senior Lecturer at the New Centre.

Ann Kirson Swersky (United States): Independent scholar. Her current research was carried out on the records of the Monson State Primary School in the Massachusetts State Archives.

Shurlee Swain (Australia): Professor at the School of Arts and Sciences at the Australian Catholic University in Victoria.

Sue Owen (England): Director of the Well-being Department at the National Children’s Bureau and formerly Director of National Children’s Bureau’s Early Childhood Unit.

Kristian Bredby (Norway): Director of the Sanitetsforening Brusetkollen in Oslo.

Jim Goddard (England): Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Bradford and Secretary of the Care Leavers’ Association.

For further information :

General enquiries should be made to the Office for the New Centre:

Tel:             0141 950 3683

Email: "sirccevents@strath.ac.uk"

"www.sircc.org.uk/CCHN"

"www.thenewcentre.org.uk"

"www.cchn.org.uk"

This item first appeared on the home page of the goodenoughcaring website at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/ on September 11th 2011.

A petition for the return of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care

David Lane has written to tell us of a petition on the No. 10 Downing Street website asking the government to re-establish the NCERCC or an equivalent body to provide leadership, support and advice for residential child care services. This petition is being supported by the Institute of for Childcare and Social Education and the Social Care Association. David asks everyone who supports this to sign up to the petition as soon as possible and to tell others who may be interested about the petition. To sign up, Google "petitions" or go direct to www.epetitions.direct.gov.uk. The title of the petition is NCERCC.

It is to be hoped that substantial support for the petition will send the government a message. Since every person signs individually and everyt person's name counts, David believes that it is "something to which everyone concerned can lend their support."  If you require more information contact David at DCL.Davidlane.org


Many readers will recall the general dismay which ran through the world of residential child care in England when at the beginning of 2010 the last government surprisingly called a halt to the funding of the palpably successful NCERCC and gave over some of the Centre's  functions to a private consortium called "Tribal". The current government decided to pull the plug on the Tribal contract but since that time residential child care has not been offered any support  to fill the void created by the closure of the NCERCC. We support the ICSE and SCA in their call for a return of the NCERCC.

This news and opinion item first appeared on the home page of the goodenoughcaring website at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com on September 4th, 2011.