It is now a couple of years since I wrote a blog entitled “Thank goodness I was made redundant”. This redundancy coincided with my starting a family. In 2020, my colleagues at What About The Children?, Sir Denis Pereira Grey, and Philip and Diana Dean had two papers published in reviewed Journals. These dealt with…
“Winnicott: A Present for the Future’ is the title of an online conference in September to celebrate 50 years since the death of this ground-breaking paediatrician and child psychologist, who died in 1971, aged 74. Tickets will be available to book online from April 25th (email: contact@winnicott-trust.org.uk). So why are we celebrating this great man,…
Well, what a year we have just been through. Thankfully, the vaccine is giving us hope that life will get better. I was interested, but not surprised, when so many of those receiving the vaccine were asked what difference it would make, they replied, “I will be able to hold my grandchild” or “hug my…
In his recent Reith Lecture, Mark Carney, ex-Governor of the Bank of England, points out the danger that market values, rather than humanistic ones, increasingly permeate our lives. Unfortunately, for some considerable time, such a trend has been insistently evident in the world of the child. Since the late 1980s, Motherlove has morphed into the…
Fans of The Archers – across all generations – will be aware of a developing story line about Alice Carter (née Aldridge), a young married woman who is a heavy drinker but who has recently discovered that she is pregnant. This is a very topical story line with the increase in alcohol consumption across all…
“New brain-building grant paid by Government to women during pregnancy from the 6th month. Children’s physical and mental health improves five-fold; savings are made in prison and hospital costs; Covid-19 is defeated by resilient generation”. Could this ever come true? Mental resilience and healthy bodies are the result of a good start in life, when…