The book examines child protection practice and policy since its origins in the 1870s, focusing largely on the UK and Ireland. The central theme is the idea that children can be protected "in time" from avoidable harm through professional intervention, an ethos ingrained in practice since its inception. Ferguson provides a critical analysis of this notion and its practice implications.
Ferguson's account of the changing concept of risk and its impact on practice is very interesting. He states that up until the 1970s, practitioners had an inherent belief in their expertise to protect children "in time".
However, since the 1970s, with the advent of what he terms "late", or "reflexive modernity", this has been replaced by a culture of questioning professionals. The effectiveness of child welfare systems has come to be "viewed through scandal politics" despite the fact that children are safer than at any other time in the history of child protection.
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