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A foster mother must notify that she receives a foster child but there is no obligation on the
mother to notify that she has placed her child with a foster mother.
A foster mother must notify where a child goes when it leaves her care but if it is to its
mother that it returns the welfare authority has no further responsibility. The mother may be
suitable or unsuitable, it may be impossible for her even to take the child in, she may pass it on anywhere
and there is no obligation on her to notify what she has done with it.
The law does not even arrange that the mother must necessarily know of change of address
or change of foster mother or death of child.
There is no obligation placed on her to keep the foster mother informed of her own address.
The foster mother has responsibilities under the law to the welfare authority but the mother
of the child has no such responsibility and is under no control.
Cause of Change of Foster Home.
The most general cause of change of foster home is the failure of the mother to pay or keep
up her payments or some such financial reason.
It may, however, be due to the fact that the foster child's character or health is such that
no foster mother will keep him.
It may also be due to the fact that the child's mother becomes a burden to the foster mother
because she interferes with the foster mother's regime for the child or because she uses her child's
foster home as a place of resort in her off duty time, expecting the foster mother to give her meals
and generally to be regarded as one of the family.
Example 1.—Four changes in a fortnight.
4-1-38—Miss E. applied to the Child Life Protection Visitor for a foster mother for
her son J.E. born 30-11-37. The address of Mrs. G. was given to her.
7-1-38—Mrs. G. received the child with promise of payment.
16-1-38—Having received no payment Mrs. G. took the child back to the mother at
10 a.m. The mother refused to accept him and went into her room and shut
the door leaving Mrs. G. and the child in the passage. Mrs. G. put the child
on the mat, knocked at the door and called out " I have left your baby on the
mat." The door was then opened by a man who picked the child up and took
him into the room.
17-1-38—A notification was received by the Child Life Protection Visitor from a Mrs. X.
stating that she had taken in a baby, J.E. When visited she said she had taken
the child in at 6.30 p.m. on 16-1-38 out of pity. The mother had taken him
to her in a taxi and stated that she had applied to an adoption society's hostel
and had been referred to headquarters and advised meanwhile to see if Mrs. X.
would take the child for the night. The child was screaming and his mother
said he had had nothing to drink all day because she had no bottle. She left
him with Mrs. X. with a promise of payment.
20-1-38—Mrs. X. returned the child to his mother because she had not received any
payment.
21-1-38—The mother was heard of from the Health Department of another district where
she went to enquire for a foster mother.
This child changed hands four times in a fortnight and may be still changing hands in
various districts. His mother told the Child Life Protection Visitor that she was employed as a
mannequin and earned £5 a week.
Example 2.-—Two changes in a week.
M.K. was an illegitimate child born in the neighbourhood of Blackheath and fostered out there.
Her mother went into service in Willesden. She found she could not afford the fares to and
from Blackheath to see her child and pay the foster mother and so arranged with Mrs. S., a daily
worker at the house where she was in service, to take the child temporarily.
10-1-37—M.K. was received by Mrs. S. in Willesden from a foster mother in Blackheath.
13-1-37—Mrs. S. reported the reception of this child and stated that she did not wish to
become a registered foster mother but had taken the child for a few days until
the mother could find a foster mother in Willesden.
14-1-37—The Child Protection Visitor visited the foster home. Her report as to the
health of the child is as follows:—
" Digestion poor, bowels very constipated, suffers a good deal with flatulence."
Mrs. S. said that she could not keep the child any longer as it cried all night. The
child was therefore transferred to Mrs. W. also in Willesden the same day 14-1-37.
15-1-37—Mrs. W. telephoned to the Child Protection Visitor to report that M.K. was
very ill and unconscious and a private doctor had been sent for. Arrangements
were made for the child's admission to the Willesden Municipal Hospital.