Author Description

Family Matters traces the changes in government child welfare services from 1902 until 1992, when the New Zealand Children and Young Persons Service began. It explores all aspects of child welfare services, including juvenile delinquency, youth justice, foster care, adoption, residential care, and child abuse. These services are a unique form of social welfare which has little in common with the benefits and pensions which characterise other areas of New Zealand's welfare state. By using government policy documents and personal case files, Bronwyn Dalley combines an analysis of child welfare policy with an examination of its effects on children and families.