Leaving the Victorian Children’s Institution: Aftercare, Friendship and Support

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the needs of young people leaving residential care and the provision of aftercare support in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Young people’s discharge, aftercare and post-institutional experiences occupy a peripheral position in scholarship on institutional care. This essay broadens interpretations of aftercare, which have been presented as inadequate inspections that monitored employment performance. Examining the formal and informal systems that aimed to enhance care-leavers’ welfare and wellbeing, the essay offers new understandings of the ongoing provision of practical and emotional support to young people, and the importance of sustained contact and affective ties between former inmates and institutional staff.