Ella is a British woman who grew up in a broken home and was abused by her stepdad. Life was a series of endless crises — temper tantrums, broken washing machines, her son banging his head against the walls. In her mind-shifting book, “Radical Help,” the British social entrepreneur Hilary Cottam tracks how one of the social workers in Ella’s case spent his days. Only 14 percent of the social worker’s time was actually spent with the family he was meant to be serving. Cottam asked the government workers involved in Ella’s case if they could recall a time when they’d transformed a family so it no longer needed government help.

Source: New York Times May 27, 2019 22:30 UTC