The family Centre, based in old Social Services offices in Redfield Road, Midsomer Norton, is part of the Barnardo's South West England organisation.

Barnardo is a name with strong resonance for anyone with an interest in the history of child care. Thomas Barnardo was born in 1845. He converted to Protestant evangelism at the age of 17 and set his heart on working as a medical missionary in China.

By 1866 he was in London, training to be a doctor. The population of the city had doubled between 1821 and 1851 and much of the increase was concentrated in the East End. Poverty, homelessness and disease were appalling and thousands of children were sleeping on the streets.

Dr Barnardo made night-time visits to the East End to help children and their families. He decided that he could do something himself to relieve their conditions and developed the philosophy that every child deserved the best possible start in life.

At the time one child in every five was dying before its fifth birthday because of poor sanitation or starvation.

But Dr Barnardo's views were radical because poverty was seen as something shameful, caused by laziness or vice. He opened a "ragged school" for East End children in 1867. Later came the homes which took the Barnardo philosophy to thousands of orphaned children. By the time of his death in 1905, more than 8,500 children were in Barnardo care.

The emphasis of Barnardo care began to change in the 1970s. Work on fostering and adoption, with problems of homelessness, disability and abuse, still continues, and community-based projects are essential to its work.

Research suggested that families in areas of high deprivation needed support in their own community, and neighbourhood family centres were launched.

Residential care was phased out, and those centres - including Midsomer Norton's - were set up all over the UK.