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in this capacity, a report is obtained from the Medical
Officer of Health of the district in which she formerly
lived. It will be seen that every effort is made to
maintain a high standard of foster parent.
According to the existing law, when notification is
received that a woman intends to accept a foster child,
the Local Authority has no power to refuse except under
certain specified conditions. If, however, it is subsequently
considered that the environment of the foster
mother may be prejudicial to the child, the procedure is
to obtain an order from the Court of Petty Sessions to
prohibit the foster mother from continuing to act as
such.
The Welfare Authority may fix the number of
children under the age of nine years who may be kept in
any premises in which a foster child is kept.
For the purpose of the Children and Young Persons
Act, 1932, now re-enacted by Section 209 of the Public
Health Act, 1936, all the Health Visitors are Infant Life
Protection Visitors and visit foster children in their
district at regular intervals, and in addition, all foster
children below the age of five are required to attend
the Infant Welfare Centres.
Day Foster Mothers.
During 1937, the Council decided to adopt a scheme
for supervising the well-being of children under school
age. The question of the establishment of one or more
day nurseries was considered but owing to the nature of
the distribution of the population in relation to the
industries, it was decided that one day nursery would
only serve such a limited number of inhabitants that
some alternative scheme might be adopted.