This paper provides a summary of a baseline study of Canadian child welfare services from 1959 to 1977. The nation-wide study relates main trends in the services to a background of demographic, social, legislative and organizational change. Progress of the research project is outlined to illustrate some of the constraints on research in Canada at…

Developments in Canadian child welfare services during the last 20 years are discussed in this paper. The discussion is based on data gathered from provincial annual reports and public accounts, Statistics Canada publications and Health and Welfare Canada reports on homes for special care, and from the author's earlier study of the child welfare…

This paper reports findings of a retrospective longitudinal reconstruction of child welfare service activities in Canada. The first section discusses demographic developments and the child welfare services. It is reported that the increase in the number of children in care in the 20-year period from 1940 to 1960 was to some extent a reflection of…

This paper focuses broadly on the needs and rights of Canadian children. It mentions problems ranging from juvenile suicide to delinquency to the grim cruelty of many institutional environments designed for children. It discusses the linkages between the question of juvenile containment and other social welfare arrangements, such as public…

Frequently implicit in Canadian social policy addressing other issues, family policy is generally assumed to be a good thing, is bound up with social structure, and, when made explicit, is prescriptive and potentially embarrassing to government. Historically important as a forerunner of more recent income assistance programs, the provision of…

This paper summarizes findings of a baseline study of Canadian child welfare services and provides a critique of current social policy in Canada. Presently, Canadians have the largest number ever of 15 to 19 year olds (n = 2,369,000). This record number of children born in the late 1950s and early 1960s is likely to affect the number of births in…

Although workers and scholars concerned with the evolution of child welfare services have general hunches about the forces influencing the directions of service development, they have not had available to them any systematic data to verify or correct their impressions. This article attempts to provide a basis for making judgments about the recent…

Child welfare services would benefit from a radical rethinking of methods of delivery. As matters now stand, stigmatized services are provided for stigmatized groups (specifically, the children of poor and minority ethnic groups). It is useful to differentiate the social provisions relating to children in need into three categories: (1) truly…

This speech presents an overview of issues and trends in the provision of foster care and adoption services in Canada. The number of children "in care" in Canada (in foster homes, institutions, or adoptive homes) appears to have peaked around 1969 and declined thereafter. Information on contraceptives and the availaibility of abortions…

Social policy for child welfare in Canada should be tested in terms of what it does to support the integrity of the family. The Canadian family in recent years has changed as infant morality rates have fallen, and as the number of illegitimate births, marriages, divorces, and women working has increased. Although the child population as a whole…

This talk which describes the child welfare situation in Canada in terms of children, parental and state responsibilities focuses on state responsibilities. Basic policy issues of child welfare are discussed, particularly the current state of federal-provincial cooperation in the national health insurance program, and recent changes in the system…