§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONasked the President of the Local Government Board, If his attention has been directed to the unsatisfactory result of the correspondence of the two past years between the Local Government Board and the Guardians of the Whitechapel Union upon the subject of a proposal by the latter for the periodical inspection of the homes of boarded out children; and, if the Local Government Board intend to adhere to their refusal to allow these Guardians the means of obtaining such a periodical inspection of the homes of these poor children as will, in their opinion, alone enable them to satisfactorily discharge this portion of their public duties?
§ MR. BRYCEasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether, seeing that it is the duty of Poor Law Guardians, who have sent pauper children to be boarded out, to ascertain that such children are properly cared for, and, seeing that such Guardians are accustomed to exact an engagement from those who receive such children to permit them to be visited on behalf of the Guardians, he will consider the propriety of permitting Poor Law Guardians to provide, where they may think it advisable, for the inspection of the places in which such pauper children are boarded; and, whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the Correspondence which has passed between the Local Government Board and the Whitechapel Board of Guardians upon this subject?
§ MR. DODSONSir, my attention has been called to the Correspondence between the Local Government Board and the Whitechapel Guardians as to the proposal of the latter to appoint and pay an officer periodically to inspect the homes of children boarded-out by them beyond the limits of the Union. It is a misapprehension to suppose that it forms any part of the public duties of the Guardians to make the proposed in- 1709 spection. The regulations of the Board provide that the children shall be visited at least once in six weeks by a member of the Boarding-out Committee, to whom they are entrusted by the Guardians, and the member making the visit is required to report the result. Besides this, the children are from time to time visited by the Inspectors of the Local Government Board. Under these circumstances, it appears to us unnecessary that the ratepayers should be subjected to the expense of providing for any further inspection, especially as the cost would in some cases be considerable. Moreover, it might tend to discourage the Boarding-out Committees, who are composed of persons of well-known character, and who voluntarily undertake their work from purely benevolent motives. If the Correspondence between the Board and the Guardians is moved for, I shall have no objection to produce it.