Mrs Castle was, of course, to be profoundly disappointed in her hope that such tragedies as Colwell could be prevented in the future. It is beyond the scope of this book to describe each and every one of the notorious child deaths that have occurred since (but see Reder et al, 1993; Munro, 2004). Nor is it our intention to provide a comprehensive account of developments in social work practice or welfare policy since the 1970s that have taken place by way of response to such deaths (but see Hendrick, 1994, 2003; Butler and Drakeford, 2005). What we intend to show, however, is that there is a clear line of sight between the key elements that comprise the Colwell case and contemporary debates about social work, ‘problem families’ and how the state orders the relationship between the two. In our view, the trial of social work occasioned by the death of Maria Colwell continues.

Ghosts

We have argued in this book and elsewhere that the press (and latterly the media more generally) has a critical role to play in the creation of a scandal, not least in developing an attentive audience for the underlying sequence of events. Colwell did not provide the first instance of the public being made aware through the pages of the public press of the part played by the ‘authorities’ in the death of children (see, for example, Pinchbeck and Hewitt, 1973, for a detailed account of ‘baby farming’ almost exactly a century earlier). What Colwell did do for the first time, however, was to link the emergent profession of social work with the arguably preventable death of a child. Thus, from the very point at which the ‘fifth social service’ began to establish itself and forever afterwards it would seem, social work was associated in the minds of the general public with its worst and most culpable failures. We shall examine shortly how contemporary reporting of social work has maintained this association but with extraordinary and increasing venom.

More immediately, what the Colwell case also provided was a ready point of reference for the future reporting of child abuse. It provided the first entry in the cuttings file for any journalist faced with an apparently similar case.