childhood records

Our Side of the Story

As a guest blogger, I posted this on the Find & Connect website today.   Other Care Leavers share with me their shock at some of what we find in our records. The language hits us between the eyes. Our counterparts in the nineteenth century were tagged by a battalion of adjectives: criminal or neglected, destitute, […]

A Charter of Rights to Childhood Records

A Charter of Rights to Childhood Records: Updated version Following some very helpful, constructive comments on an early draft, this revised draft (3 March 2016) is posted with a further invitation to comment. It is also posted on the CLAN website. We particularly welcome and value comment by Care Leavers, ‘Forgotten Australians’, people formerly placed in foster families, members of […]

10 Blunders in Child Welfare

 UPDATE The ten worst blunders in child welfare in  Australia  since 1788. COUNT DOWN TO NUMBER 1 It has been hard deciding which of all the many mistakes of the past – and those which continue to be made – warrants the title “the worst”. But here it is. BLUNDER # 1: Having inflicted significant damage on children […]

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