Newly published biography of Lucy Faithfull ~ an inspiration to social workers everywhere
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010Mother to Hundreds ~ The Life of Lucy Faithfull is a rich history of child care in the twentieth century. The life-long and passionate campaigner for children, Baroness Lucy Faithfull, (1910-1996), was one of the most eminent social workers of the twentieth century. She was a Conservative life peer, but she opposed, and persuaded others to oppose, so many of the measures which the Party supported in relation to the welfare of children.
She helped create and chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children, in which capacity she had a seminal influence on the Children Act of 1989. Her revolt against the Government’s plans for secure training centres for young offenders secured the amendment which allowed magistrates the choice of sending them there or to local authority secure care. She opposed benefit changes, the poll tax, the creation of the Social Fund, and the asylum seekers’ bill. She took gleeful satisfaction that government whips affectionately but exasperatingly dubbed her “Lady Faithless”. One of her contributions was to draw attention to the implications for families and children in Bills where their interests were not immediately apparent.
She never married or had children of her own, but as Children’s Officer for Oxford City, she made a difference, directly or indirectly, to the lives of very many children and families. She was one of the first to realise that, in order to re-unite families where sexual abuse had taken place and to protect children from further abuse, effective treatment of the abusers was necessary. She helped to found, and gave her name to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which pioneered intensive therapeutic rehabilitation for sex offenders, and is still acknowledged as a leading criminal justice charity.
When Lucy Faithfull died in 1996 social work lost on of it’s most passionate and powerful advocates.
http://lucyfaithfull.org The Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF) is a child protection charity committed to reducing the risk of children being sexually abused. LFF’s staff work with adult male and female sexual abusers; young people with inappropriate sexual behaviours; victims of abuse and other family members.
About the Author
Judith Niechcial read English at Birmingham University. She then qualified, and had a long career as a social worker, manager and educator. She has published A Particle of Clay: The Biography of Alec Skempton, Civil Engineer, (Whittles, 2002) a book about her father. She has an MA from the Creative Writing course (Life Writing) at the University of East Anglia. She has lived in The Netherlands and the USA, and now lives in South London.
Mother to Hundreds ~ The Life of Lucy Faithfull by Judith Niechcial
Publication September 2010 Cost £12.00 (ISBN: 978 0 9532305 3 2)
To purchase this book contact:
Aldersmead Publishing 14 Aldersmead Road, Kent, BR3 1NA
Email: jmfniechcial@hotmail.com
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