This appears an unambiguous title; we talk frequently, both about ‘prevention’ and ‘family breakdown’. Yet if we reflect on each of these terms there are good reasons for doubt and uncertainty. Does the death of a father constitute the breakdown (or break-up?) of a family? Has a family in which the eldest child is unloved by mother and overprotected by father broken down? Or a family from which the mother is away in mental hospital, possibly for a short time? In brief do we use the term to refer to the lack of the physical wholeness of a family or to a failure in one of the essential functions of the family? If we refer to both these features at the same time it is likely that the term is being stretched beyond its usefulness.

If we turn to the other term in the title, prevention, the lack of clarity is much more in evidence. The idea of prevention has a long history as far as public provision for social welfare is concerned. It is possible to observe at least three stages in the development of this idea. Firstly, it was considered that people should be prevented from recourse to dependence on such social provision as existed by the availability early in life of certain guiding influences. Thus, education was seen ‘as one of the most important means of eradicating the germs of pauperism for the rising generation and of securing in the minds and morals of the people the best protection for the institutions of society’.