Professor Robert Dingwall, ESRC QUALIDATA Study: 'The Protection of Children'.

The following is an interim description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in future:

The collection comprises records of the study, 1977-1982, including transcripts of interviews with health visitors, social workers, etc., in the Oxford Area Health Authority, and various associated papers including questionnaires, child care case transcripts, case review committee and board papers, correspondence and articles relating to child abuse. There are also papers relating to local authority child protection services and agencies in Cornwall and Barnsley.

c.1977-1990

9 transfer boxes

The material was presented to the library at Wellcome Collection 25/10/1996 by Professor Dingwall.

At the time this study was deposited with the Wellcome Library, Robert Dingwall was Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is currently (2012) Professor at the School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University.
Robert Dingwall has published numerous papers, articles and reports on child protection, welfare, neglect and child abuse in the 1980s based on the Oxford study. He also co-authored Care Proceedings: A Practical Guide for Social Workers, Health Visitors and Others (with J M Eekelaar), Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1982; The Protection of Children: State Intervention and Family Life (with J M Eekelaar and T Murray), Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983; The Reform of Child Care Law (with J M Eekelaar), Routlegde, 1990.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Qualitative Data Archival Resource Centre is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues.

'The Protection of Children' study was undertaken by Professor Dingwall, John Eekelaar, S B Burman, M Maclean and L A 'Topsy' Murray, sponsored by ESRC. The aim was to investigate the interaction between health, welfare and legal agencies with particular reference to cases considered for care proceedings under section 1 (a-c) of the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act. The first phase of the project studied twenty such child cases in depth. The collected data included observation of case conferences and court hearings; interviews with key participants; and summaries of case records plus observations of meetings of the local Area Review Committee. The main report of the child protection study presented a detailed empirical investigation into relationships within and between health, welfare and legal agencies involved in the care and custody of children thought to have been abused or neglected. The field work was carried out between 1977 and 1982.

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