HL Deb 23 April 1953 vol 181 cc1219-20WA
LORD STRABOLGI

asked Her Majesty's Government what is the present average cost of maintaining the child of a woman sent to prison when her children have to be boarded out, or otherwise cared for at public expense.

LORD LLOYD

A child who has been received into care by a local authority because his parents are unable to provide for him for the time being may be accommodated in a children's home or nursery or boarded out in a foster-home. The revised estimates of local authorities in England and Wales for 1952–53 show the average weekly cost of children in homes and nurseries provided under the Children Act as £5 7s. 3d. and of boarding out in a foster-home as £1 8s. 5d.