Social services in Britain.

  • Great Britain. Central Office of Information. Reference Division.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Social services in Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/132 (page 30)
    CHILD CARE Local authorities’ functions under the Children Act 1948 are exercised under the general guidance of the Secretaries of State; separate Advisory Councils on Child Care exist for the purpose of advising the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Scotland on matters connected with the dis- charge of their functions under the Act. Each local authority (county, county borough and London borough council or, in Scotland, council of a large burgh) is required to appoint a children’s committee and a children’s officer to be responsible for the care and upbringing of children in the authority’s care. Children’s officers are assisted by a staff of child care officers who undertake enquiries and who supervise children placed in foster homes. Regulations for England and Wales safeguarding the boarding out of children by local authorities and voluntary organisations and the conduct of children’s homes have been made by the Home Secretary, and, for Scotland, by the Secretary of State for Scotland. The cost of the loca! authorities’ child care service, including the provision of training for residential child care staff and child care officers, is shared between the local authorities and the Exchequer. In Northern Ireland the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1950 gave to the welfare authorities of each county and county borough (under the general direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs) the duty of caring for homeless and neglected children. Legislation relating to children and arrangements for their care follow the same general prin- ciples as in Great Britain. Local authorities in Great Britain have a duty under the Children and Young Persons Act 1963 to make available such advice, guidance and assistance as may promote the welfare of children by diminishing the need to receive or keep them in the authority’s care or to bring them before a juvenile court. This help may include assistance in kind or, exceptionally, financial help, and may be given through a voluntary organisation or directly. However, under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, if a child seems to be in need of care, protection or control because of adverse circumstances in which it is not receiving the standard of care to be expected from a good parent or because it is beyond the control of parent or guardian, the local authority and the old-established National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and its Scottish counterpart may initiate court pro- ceedings and the child may be committed by the juvenile court to the care of a ‘fit person’, usually the local authority, till he or she reaches the age of i8, subject to reconsideration by a court on the application of any person. Local authorities have a further duty, under the Children Act 1948, to receive into their care any child under 17 who has no parent or guardian, or who has been abandoned or whose parents are unable to provide for him temporarily or permanently. A child so received remains in the care of the local authority until he is 18 years old unless the authority finds it to his advantage to return him sooner to his parents or guardian or to entrust him to friends, or unless a parent requests his return. Both categories of children are to be treated so as to further their best interests and afford them opportunity for the proper development of their character and interests. When practicable, children in care are boarded out with foster parents,