Knowledge, Skills and the ‘System’ — A Review of the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care and Supervision Provided in Relation to Maria Colwell (Department of Health and Social Security, H.M.S.O., London, 1974)

Abstract

In January, 1973, Maria Colwell, a child not quite eight years old, died at the hands of her stepfather. This was not simply another case of child-battering, of which the community had become increasingly aware over recent years. Maria was the subject of a “supervision order” of a juvenile court, and was the client of a number of skilled, professional people—teachers, doctors, nurses, welfare officers, and, in particular, she was the client of the social worker employed by the East Sussex County Council. Indeed, Maria had been the client of that agency from the age of about seventeen months, and her widowed mother and four of her siblings for a somewhat longer period.