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Year
No. of boys
remanded
Psychiatric
reports requested
%
Conduct
reports
requested
1950 1,246 720 57.9 110
1951 1,323 870 65.7 266
1952 996 752 75.5 277
1953 1,042 918 88.1 364
1954 1,028 803 78.1 234
1955 1,036 846 81.7 244
1956 1,103 793 71.9 303
1957 899 844 93.9 414
1958 1,182 961 81.3 688
1959 1,226 978* 79.8 905
*In addition, there were 131 'comprehensive' reports which include psychiatric, conduct and other
reports.
The table shows clearly how the proportion of cases in which the Courts call for special
reports has increased over the period, in continuance of the trend which started in 1936
when the percentage of such cases was only 11.6.
(f) London classifying centre—Since January, 1958 Stamford House has been functioning
as a classifying centre as well as a remand home. Until then boys committed to approved
schools by London courts had been unable to have the benefit of the classifying system,
which operated in the rest of England and Wales for non-Roman Catholic boys. Under
that system boys committed outside London to approved schools went to one of four
classifying approved schools so that the most suitable training school for the particular
boy could be assessed. Stamford House now does this work for boys committed by London
courts and during 1959 dealt with approximately 400 boys. The approved school most
suited to the boy is selected and its name is submitted to the court for approval. The
classifying procedure is designed to be a continuation and reorientation of the remand
procedure rather than a discreet process. Thus the information already collected is
expanded and used in an attempt to decide what conditions, atmosphere and case-work
would be advisable for each particular boy in the approved school. The staff involved
in the classifying work are, therefore, the same as those who take part in the remand work.
A notable development was the agreement that from July, 1958 Stamford House should
undertake the assessment and allocation of all Roman Catholic boys committed by the
London courts: these boys are not so classified outside London. The agreement was made
by the Church authorities, the Home Office and the Council, and contained safeguards to
ensure that Roman Catholic boys should, save in exceptional circumstances, be allocated to
Roman Catholic schools, that Stamford House should have Roman Catholic representatives
on its managing committee, and that a member of the staff of that faith should take part
in the classifying procedure.
(g) Cumberlow Lodge Remand Home for Girls—Only about ten per cent. of the children
and young persons appearing before the Juvenile Courts are girls, so that when the total
numbers were low, as they were a quarter of a century ago, separate accommodation for
girls was not justified by the small numbers involved. Since 1949, however, the Council has
maintained at Cumberlow Lodge a separate remand home for girls. In addition to a full
psychiatric team, similar to that at Stamford House, Cumberlow Lodge has the services
of a consultant venereologist, who provides any necessary 'special' reports to the Courts.
During 1959 plans were being drawn up for the future development at Cumberlow Lodge
of a classifying centre for girls, similar to that at Stamford House for boys.
(h) Psychiatric services at approved schools—During the past ten years there has been
the gradual development of psychiatric services at the approved schools maintained by
the Council. At the outset the arrangements were simply that one of the Council's
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