Institutional Care

This chapter explores the development and increasing regulation of the institutional care of children removed from their families by the state. The growth of reformatory and industrial schools in the 19th century is dealt with, as are the reasons why these two types of school were never truly separate in Scotland. Their formal amalgamation into “approved schools” in 1932 is examined, as is the regulatory structures that evolved to ensure their appropriate running, including their registration, the managers, and the rules for discipline and corporal punishment. The regulation of children’s homes, originally run by charitable endeavours (voluntary organisations) and after 1948 increasingly by local authorities, is also covered. Various official reports reimagining the purpose of institutional care are examined in some detail, in particular the Kearney Report, as are the regulatory rules that developed from these reports. Finally, the development of “secure accommodation”, that is to say, locked accommodation, is described, with the regulatory framework governing the running of secure accommodation within institutional care of children.