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54
Child Life Protection.
The statutory provisions relating to child life protection,
so far as London is concerned, are now embodied in the Public
Health (London) Act, 1936.
Foster-mothers and the children in their care were visited
throughout the year by the health visiting staff, who have been
appointed by the Council as Child Life Protection visitors. The
number of visits paid by them in 1938 to foster-mothers and
children was 813.
At the end of 1937 there were 114 Battersea foster-mothers
known to the Council, 54 of whom had nurse children in their
care to the number of 94. During 1938, 31 new foster-mothers
gave notice of their intention to receive children; and 4 were
reported to the Committee as having given up the practice of
receiving nurse children.
After making adjustments for deaths, removals from the
Borough, and those cases where no children had been taken for
over two years, there remained at the end of the year 98 fostermothers,
of whom 51 had nurse children in their care to the number
of 80. The ages of the 80 children were as under:—
Under 1 year 11
1 to 5 years 40
Over 5 and under 9 years 29
Twenty-three of the children were attending the welfare centres
at the end of the year.
No foster children died during the year, but there were 18
cases of infectious disease.

In one case an unsuitable foster-mother was required to give
up the care of a nurse child; in a second a prospective foster-mother
was informed she should not receive children, but in no case during
the year was it necessary to resort to legal action to enforce the
requirements of the statute, nor was it necessary to exercise the
power of fixing the maximum number of nurse children permitted
to be kept by a registered foster-mother.
The whole number of nurse children who were under observation
during 1938 was 187.
The protection of child life is, of course, one of the main objects
of the Council's child welfare scheme, and apart from the special
activities recorded above, the Health Visitors do much useful work
for the well-being of children. In those cases (fortunately rare) of
active cruelty or culpable neglect the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children is informed, and I am happy to
acknowledge the invaluable help they have given in such cases.