Behind Closed Doors

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  , 'Brilliant . . . I love this book' LEMN SISSAY

'A must-read book' JACQUELINE WILSON

'Extraordinary' OLIVER BULLOUGH

'Everyone should read this book' HILARY COTTAM

Meet the mother whose children were taken away, and the father who fought for his son. Listen to the radical social worker, the judge, the lawyer. See inside the homes of foster carers, adoptive parents and children in care. Because behind closed doors, a scandal is ongoing.

We now remove more children from their parents than ever before. Children's Care is a system where fathers are ignored, and mothers are punished for experiencing abuse. Rife with prejudices about race, ableism and class, determined by a postcode lottery. Blind to poverty and its effects on family life. And, at its very worst, an exercise in social engineering that can never replace parental love.

From North to South, rich and poor, Black and white, these are the people who know, first-hand, what is going wrong – and how we can fix it.

'Important' IAN BIRRELL

'Vital' HANNAH JANE PARKINSON

'One of Britain's best journalists writing about social justice' MARIANA MAZZUCATO,
Polly Curtis is an author and journalist dedicated to reporting on social justice. Having worked at Tortoise, HuffPost, theBritish Red Cross and for sixteen years as Education Editor, Whitehall Correspondent, News Editor and Digital Editor at the Guardian, she was a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute and was most recently Managing Director of PA Media. Born in Camden, she still lives there, with her husband and two children.  , 'Reveals a hidden side of Britain' Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

We now remove more children from their parents than any time since records began,
more than other western countries.
Mothers are punished. Fathers are ignored . Social workers are burning out. Poverty is invisible. Children are failed.
By going behind closed doors, by listening to families and workers, we can understand what is going wrong – and we can fix it.

'In this balanced, forensic and compelling book Polly Curtis shows what is happening to the most vulnerable families in Britain' Hilary Cottam, author of Radical Help
'This book, by one of Britain's best journalists writing about social justice, provides a damning indictment of just that: a dysfunctional society that is punishing victims instead of investing in the roots of the problem' Mariana Mazzucato, UCL Professor, author of Mission Economy
'One of the most important books on British society for many years' Matt d'Ancona, author of Identity, Ignorance, Innovation,

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