childcare-50years

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homes had remained "little changed since the nineteenth century,
either in buildings or organisation... Some were more up-to-date and
provided a relatively interesting and varied way of life for the
children". The Committee concluded by recommending that fostering
should be promoted as the next best alternative to adoption as a
means of providing children with the emotional satisfaction of a
family and links with the wider community. The result of Curtis in
practice was:
• to develop boarding-out as a policy;
• to promote the recruitment of foster parents;
• to close larger children's homes; and
• to reduce the amount of residential accommodation available to
children in care.
Other factors, which contributed to the misperception that Curtis was
opposed to residential care, were:
• Dr John Bowlby's work in 1951 on "Maternal Care and Mental
Health", which was often misinterpreted as advocating that any
maternal figure was better than group care; and
• the concerns expressed by the Parliamentary Select Committee on
Estimates at the rising cost of residential care, foster care was,
therefore, deemed a more appropriate and a cheaper option than
residential care.
The consequences of emphasising fostering on the development of
residential services for children cannot be over stated. As the Castle
Priory Report of 1968 noted:
"it is not surprising that residential work became the
"Cinderella" of the Child Care Service for a time and many
people engaged in it felt discouraged and despondent
about a future in which they appeared to be destined
always to be a second best method of care".
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
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