Presentation by Val Gillies, London South Bank University, to The Uses and Abuses of Biology: Neuroscience, Parenting and Family Policy, 28 March 2014.

1. Brain Science & Early Intervention:
Tracing the New Biologisation of Parenting & Child Care

2. Brain Science & Early Intervention Project
Ros Edwards, Val Gillies & Nicola Horsley
Research Process
1. Policy review
2. Interviews with influential advocates:
Matthew Taylor, policy advisor
Frank Field, Labour MP
Andrea Leadsom, Conservative MP
Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company
3. Interviews with health & early years practitioners.
Family Nurse Practitioners x 8
Children’s Centre Workers x 7
Health Visitors x 2

6. Science is helping us to understand how
love and nurture by caring adults is hard
wired into the brains of children. We
know too that not intervening now will
affect not just this generation of children
and young people but also the next.
Those who suffer multiple adverse
childhood events achieve less
educationally, earn less, and are less
healthy, making it more likely that the
cycle of harm is perpetuated, in the
following generation.

7. Accounts of child rescue followed a general format that
challenged poor parents genuine affection for their
children as well as their ability to teach children the value
of respectable work. Like missionary conversion parables,
philanthropic narratives then celebrated the reclaimation
of poor youths as productive members of English society
(Lydia Murdoch Imagined Orphans, Rutgers University Press Murdoch (2006)

9. ‘Little Mary’
Reproduced in: Lydia Murdoch (2006) Imagined Orphans, Rutgers
University Press

10. Historical Paralells
• The separation of the child’s interests from that of their
wider family.
• The biological Othering of the poor
• The use of exaggerated contrasting imagery to emphasise
physical difference
• Identification of children as raw materials and future
assets.

11. BUSINESS
•profit
•workforce
•neo-liberal ideology
agenda
•universities
•NHS spin-offs
POLITICIANS
PROFESSIONALS
- practitioners
- academics/educators -
police/lawyers
- psychoanalysts
- charities Policy aligned with:
•individualism/poverty
•marketisation
•retraditionalisation
MEDIA
THINK TANKS
FOUNDATIONS
CHARITIES
WAVE TRUST
NEW
PHILANTHROPY
•expertise
•resources
(disciplinary wars)
INTERVENTION
PROGRAMMES
- social
investment
bonds
- new
philanthropy
c. Edwards, Gillies & Horsley 2014
Do not reproduce

13. Philanthrocapitalism
• Large sums of money committed to philanthropy
• A belief that methods drawn from business can
solve social problems and are superior to the
other methods in use in the public sector and in
civil society
• A claim that these methods can achieve the
transformation of society, rather than increased
access to socially beneficial goods and services.
(Michael Edwards 2008, Just Another Emperor, Demos/Young Foundation)

14. About eight years ago, my life was changed. Two separate cases of child murder by parents or
step-parents filled the newspapers, one quickly after the other. What caught my attention was
not the deaths. It was that for a year or two before their deaths these children suffered
systematic torture at the hands of their parents, so extreme that death itself must have been a
release. I was shocked to the core. I had not previously realised that children could (and often
do) suffer so at the hands of their parents. At that moment I made a decision – more
accurately, a decision made me – that I could not live in a world where such things occurred
while I did nothing about it……I knew that to change how businesses perform it was crucial to
understand the root causes of their cost and profit structures…..Could the same approaches be
applied to the problem of child abuse? My first thought was, yes, it could. I then began a
voyage of exploration to understand the root causes of child abuse. For some weeks I trawled
the internet seeking advice, opinions, evidence, references, experts and material relevant to
my search. One of my first discoveries was that there were almost as many theories about
what causes child abuse as people to hold them….. I was bombarded with ideas by people,
every one convinced they held the sole true understanding of the problem. I resolved to base
my conclusions only on verifiable scientific evidence. (George Hosking -Digging up the Roots of
Violence )

19. I have now finished reading the WAVE report 2005 and would ask that you let George know
that in 30 years of policing over 8 as a BCU commander it is the single most impactive thing I
have seen, with I believe the most potential to make a real difference (Chief Superintendent
John Snell, Borough Commander, Avon & Somerset Police)
The WAVE Report 2005: Violence And What To Do About It [is] perhaps the most significant
paper on strategic crime reduction in recent years. (Commander Allan Gibson, Director of
Strategic Development, Specialist Crime Directorate, Metropolitan Police)
'The WAVE Report is currently receiving significant interest in a number of Government
areas, not least the Treasury. This report could have significant implications for London and
allocation of Early Years resources. (Acting Chief Superintendent Michael Taylor,
Metropolitan Police)
'Thank you for your presentation at Scotland Yard, it confirms my views and thoughts after
27 years policing in London… I would champion this work back on Enfield Borough. Once
again, keep up all your good work. You have my fullest support and utmost admiration.‘
(Superintendent Stewart Rivers, Strategic Change Manager, Edmonton Police)
The WAVE Trust [is] part of the solution.’ (Sir Ian Blair)

20. BUSINESS
•profit
•workforce
•neo-liberal ideology
agenda
•universities
•NHS spin-offs
POLITICIANS
PROFESSIONALS
- practitioners
- academics/educators -
police/lawyers
- psychoanalysts
- charities Policy aligned with:
•individualism/poverty
•marketisation
•retraditionalisation
MEDIA
THINK TANKS
FOUNDATIONS
CHARITIES
WAVE TRUST
NEW
PHILANTHROPY
•expertise
•resources
(disciplinary wars)
INTERVENTION
PROGRAMMES
- social
investment
bonds
- new
philanthropy
c. Edwards, Gillies & Horsley 2014
Do not reproduce