View report page

to whether the ranks of the presbytery will be filled when they
perforce vacate their offices, up to the present recruits have been
forthcoming. So we continue to hope that the fount of public
spiritedness to which we are indebted for this help will not
dry up.
Child Life Protection. Our responsibilities in this regard
it seems will shortly cease. It is safe to say as far as the supervision
of this group of foster children is concerned, that is to
say those required to be notified under Section 206 of the Public
Health Act, whose supervision has been made the responsibility
of the Welfare Authorities and who come under the supervision
of the Health Visitor Inspectorate, that these responsibilities
have generally been faithfully and conscientiously carried out.
Moreover, their qualifications to carry out this supervision hardly
seem to have obtained the notice which they merit. Nor will a
change in inspectorate and a transfer of responsibility remedy
difficulties inherent in such arrangements. In this particular
group, for which we have been responsible, the biggest single
factor threatening the child's happiness and proper development
is the frequency of change.
Our records show, and I have little doubt records of other
authorities would also show, a distressing frequency of change
of foster-mother within a period of not more than a year.
It is still a remarkable fact that the strict letter of the law
with regard to notifications is often neglected. The present
difficulty in finding foster homes and the belief that too obstrusive
inspection may deter suitable women, who would otherwise
be willing, from accepting such responsibility, discourages
prosecutions for technical offences, merely for the sake of
public education.
As will be seen from the tabulated statement below, there
were 9 foster-mothers and 8 foster children under supervision
at the end of the year. During the year 138 visits were paid
to registered homes in the district, giving an average of 15 visits
per home per year. No children were boarded out in this district
under the Public Assistance or other arrangements of the
Surrey County Council during the year.