In this remarkable book Patricia Morgan examines a vast corpus of research data which reveals that, while the childcare bandwagon has been gathering speed, a considerable amount of evidence has been accumulating which calls into question the idea that third-party childcare is good for children. She criticises the relentless propagandising of 'show projects' in which lavish resources are allocated to severely deprived children, for whom almost anything would been an improvement on their home circumstances. She argues that we must look at the research into the sort of childcare which ordinary mothers actually use, and that this tells a very different story. It seems that childcare children may be disadvantaged in terms of their educational performance, their behaviour and their attachment to their mothers, compared with children cared for at home. Childcare advocates claim that they only want the best quality childcare, and that it must be made available to all.
However, high-quality childcare is so expensive that it could never be widely available, and those governments which have made ideological commitments to providing it have, in the end, largely given up - except on the rhetoric. "Who Needs Parents? will one day be recognised as the Silent Spring of domestic life" The Guardian. "A study published...this week states bluntly that daycare often harms young children emotionally and educationally, and that they would fare better at home with their mothers." The Sunday Times. "I have been drawing upon an excellent analysis by the British sociologist and family-policy specialist Patricia Morgan, who has written the most definitive account I have so far seen of this entire issue." Commentary. "Morgan has done us a service...arguing against the tide in a neglected area." Howard Glennerster, The Economic Journal. "This book will stir some readers to anger. Others may be relieved that children, who have appeared to take second place in the child care debate, are once more to the fore." Community Care.
- ISBN10 0255363680
- ISBN13 9780255363686
- Publish Date October 1996
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 17 June 2002
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Civitas:Institute for the Study of Civil Society
- Format Paperback
- Pages 174
- Language English