HC Deb 14 May 1896 vol 40 cc1319-20
SIR SAMUEL MONTAGU (Tower Hamlets, Whitechapel)

I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board, whether permission was withheld from the Mile End Guardians to begin their proposed school buildings until after the Poor Law Schools Committee had reported; whether he is aware that the village school at Hornchurch cost £54,900, with an annual cost for each child of £38 6s. 7d., and that Banstead village school cost £93,000, with an annual expense for each child of £28 4s.; and, whether he will prevent the Mile End Guardians from building the same kind of school when certified homes and the boarding out system recommended in that Report would entail an annual cost per child of only £15 12s. and £13 6s. 8d. respectively?

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. HENRY CHAPLIN, Lincolnshire, Sleaford)

The Local Government Board in November 1895, informed the Mile End Guardians that they would be unable to assent to building operations being commenced on the site which had been acquired by the Guardians for school buildings, before the Report of the Poor Law Schools Committee had been received. I have no reason to doubt the approximate accuracy of the statements in the Question as to the cost of the schools on the cottage home system at Hornchurch and Banstead. The accommodation required by the Mile End Guardians is for over 400 children, a large proportion of whom clearly could not properly be boarded out. If for these children the only alternative was their admission to certified homes, as it is entirely at the option of the managers of each certified home what children shall be admitted, the Mile End Guardians might at any time find themselves without proper accommodation for large numbers of their children. If the Guardians are willing to avail themselves of the system of boarding out to a larger extent than at the present time, there would certainly be no objection on the part of the Board; but to force a Board of Guardians to adopt that system, assuming that I had the power to do so, is a policy which I am not prepared to accept.