§ Mr. Sorensenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the restricted powers of children's committees which only enable officers to act when a child is deprived of normal home life, what further action has been taken to encourage local authorities to employ their permissive powers to undertake preventive work and domestic rehabilitation in the interest of child welfare; and to what extent the placing of children with 149W foster parents has been practised by local authorities in accordance with the Select Committee's recommendation.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeA joint circular was sent in 1950 by the Home Office and the Ministries of Health and Education to local authorities, urging co-ordinated use of local statutory and voluntary services concerned with the welfare of children. These arrangements are of value in enabling some children to remain with their parents instead of being received into public care.
Nineteen thousand two hundred and seventy-one children were boarded out by local authorities at the end of 1949, 24,319 in 1951 and 26,277 in 1952, representing 35 per cent., 39 per cent. and 41 per cent. of the number of children in care.