HC Deb 01 August 1946 vol 426 cc1195-6
20. Mr. Janner

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children who had been committed to the care of any authority, apart from the Kent County Council, for boarding out with foster parents, have been placed in remand homes during the last two years without application having been made previously to his Department for special arrangements to be made in accordance with the Children and Young Persons' Boarding-out Rules, 1933; what are the names of the authorities concerned; when were the respective children sent to remand homes; and for what periods were they respectively detained there.

Mr. Ede

When children are committed to the care of a local authority it is frequently necessary that they should remain temporarily in a remand home or other place of safety until a foster home is found or other special arrangement made. My consent is required if the temporary stay exceeds two months. I regret I cannot give the figures for the last two years, but since 1st January, 1946, six cases have come to notice of children outside Kent remaining in a remand home for more than two months without my consent. In all these cases, however, consent would have been given, since the children either were awaiting admission to a special school, or were mentally defective or under observation for mental defect, but this is no excuse for failing to ask for my consent.

Mr. Janner

In view of the serious nature of this matter, may I ask my right hon. Friend what the forms are that have to be filled in when a child is committed to a remand home? Do those forms contain any particulars as to the authority for sending the child to the home?

Mr. Ede

If my hon. Friend wants information of that nature, he should put a Question on the Paper, but I will arrange for him to see copies of the forms in use.