24 Facts About Clare Winnicott

Clare Winnicott played a pivotal role in the passing of the Children Act 1948.

Winnicott, Clare would go on to become a prolific writer and prominent social worker and children's advocate in 20th century England.

Clare Winnicott's father, James Nimmo Britton, a Scot who had migrated south, was a gifted Baptist cleric whose oratory skills led to considerable growth in attendance at the numerous churches to which he had been assigned.

In 1949, Clare Winnicott's mother was elected the first woman deacon of the Avenue Baptist Church.

Clare Winnicott went on to attend Selly Oak College in Birmingham, a Baptist affiliated school, and earned her qualification as a teacher from 1929 to 1930.

Clare Winnicott enrolled in the thirteen-month mental health course, Britain's top programme for psychiatric social work.

Clare Winnicott worked under the child psychiatrist Mildred Creak, who is known for the development of diagnostic criteria for autism.

Not only did the war affect the school Clare Winnicott attended, but the impacts of the Blitz would find their way to Clare Winnicott personally and leave a lasting impression on her as a young woman.

Unlike her classmates Clare Winnicott did not pursue a career in a mental health clinic or hospital setting on completing the LSE course.

Clare Winnicott then moved to the Midlands to take a position with the regional health authority.

In 1945, the death of a child in the English foster care system opened a widespread investigation in which Clare participated as a member of the committee investigating the incident alongside Winnicott, whom she had worked with previously on evacuation.

Clare Winnicott, having gained the respect of the academic and social work communities, was appointed the first "Lecturer in Charge" of the new course.

Clare Winnicott helped assist British Army personnel who had been prisoners of war who had endured psychological trauma.

Clare Winnicott noted similarities between the men returning home and the children she had worked with previously and drew parallels between the soldiers and deprived children.

Clare Winnicott's was appointed to lead the programme on a new social work programme at the London School of Economics in 1947.

Clare Winnicott became well known across the United Kingdom, and this led to invitations to lecture at other universities.

Clare Winnicott wrote a paper, "Casework Techniques in the Child Care Services," after her address at the 1954 United Nations Seminar on European Social Services.

Clare Winnicott's paper was well received and later published in academic journals in Britain and in the United States.

Clare Winnicott wanted to learn Kleinian analysis but was disappointed when Scott did not work in the expected manner.

Clare Winnicott continued her own training with the British Psychoanalytical Society.

Partly as a result, Clare Winnicott lost her post, but she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Clare Winnicott ran a small analytic practice and offered clinical supervision to colleagues until she died as a result of skin cancer on April 15,1984.

Clare Winnicott's contributions had a profound impact on childcare and social work, particularly through her contributions to the Curtis Committee, and at the Home Office.

The Clare Winnicott Prize, named in her honour, was instituted in 1986 by "GAPS" for an innovative essay on a social work theme by a previously unpublished social work practitioner or student.