CHILD LIFE PROTECTION FILES

For the most part, the files contain records of the local authority's assessment of the suitability of foster mothers at first registration, and the notification of the arrival and transfer of foster children. Beyond this, however, a variety of material can appear, including reports from health visitors and district nurses on various matters, and correspondence concerning the infringement of regulations.

Almost all files in the series contain special reports by the health visitors which describe the living accommodation and financial circumstances of the foster mother. As these seem likely to be of considerable value to the social historian, they have been removed from destroyed files from no. 328 onwards and filed in a separate series.

Other small separate groups of papers have also been retained for the following: registers of public and preparatory schools, of larger foster homes, nursery schools, and remand homes, and a small collection of miscellaneous papers.

The files are numbered in chronological order, a new file with the next running number being formed with the registration of each new foster mother.

As files which closed before 1955 are now (1971), no longer required by the Social Services Department, the majority of them have been destroyed, but two types have been retained:-

(1) Every twenty-fifth file (starting with no. 25) has been preserved in order to provide a random sample. In a few cases the appropriate file was not received; and on such occasions the succeeding number has been kept, e.g. no. 826 in place of no. 825

(2) Individual files which seem of special social or historical interest have also been preserved. Where such a file proved to be one which would have normally been retained as part of the random sample, it has been marked with an asterisk.

The only exception to these rules is being made over files 1-113. Rather less than half of them were surviving when they were transferred to the Record Office and these were not in the strict chronological sequence which marks the rest of the series. However, as they include the earliest files surviving, it was decided to retain them all to provide as much information as possible about the early years of the system.

Under the 1908 Children's Act, the Guardians of the Poor Law Unions were responsible for the general oversight of all foster children. These functions were transferred to the County Council under the Local Government Act 1929, the transfer taking effect on the 1 April 1930; and the series of Child Life Protection files in the Childrens Department commences in this year.