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Example 7.—Returning child to mother.
The mother of K.C., reported to be earning 38s. 6d. a week, failed to keep up her payments.
The foster mother, finding it impossible to keep the child without money and being unable to find
the mother, applied to the Public Assistance Officer to take the child into the Institution. This
was not done but the mother's address was traced and as a result of instructions received the foster
mother eventually left the child at its mother's address with the result that the child was subsequently
found abandoned in a church porch.
Example 8.—Returning child to mother.
Miss J. on a wet and foggy day knocked at various houses and enquired if anyone would take
her three weeks' old child as a foster child. At last she found a Mrs. H., who agreed to keep the
child for two weeks only as she was expecting a baby of her own in three weeks. Miss J. gave her
address and promised to return with 10s. the next day. Miss J. was not seen again and had never
been heard of at the address given. Mrs. H. took the child to the Public Assistance Officer but
admission to the institution was not arranged until after Mrs. H. had been removed to hospital for
confinement and the foster child left with a neighbour to leave with the Public Assistance Officer.
This child died in the Institution.
(2) Get the child taken by the Public Assistance Department.
The Public Assistance Department will only accept responsibility where it is satisfied that the
fullest enquiry has already been made by the foster mother as to the whereabouts of the parents.
Meanwhile the foster mother has to go on keeping and feeding the child as best she can without money.
See the two examples, Nos. 7 and 8, given immediately above.
(3) Keep the child for nothing.
Surprising as it may seem this is not infrequently done.
Example 9.—Child retained for nothing.
Miss H. knocked at Mrs. R.'s door and asked her if she would take her two months' old child
in because she had failed to pay the foster mother who would not now keep the child. It was
raining fast and Mrs. R. took the child in. The mother threatened " to do away with him " if she
didn't. Miss H. promised to pay regularly but has failed to pay anything at all. Mrs. R. proposes
legally to adopt the child.
Example 10.—Child retained for nothing.
Foster mother, Mrs. G.,has two boys for whom the payments have lapsed for years and whom
she has continued to keep. One boy is now working. The other is 7 years old. Mrs. G. received
him when he was two months old. His mother kept up the payments for one year and then
disappeared.
Example 11.—Child retained for nothing.
Foster mother, Mrs. H., has a coloured child in her care aged 8 years. She has had her
since six months of age and received no payments after the first few months. The foster parents
would adopt this child but cannot trace the mother. The father was a native of West Africa.
Standard of Living for Foster Children and Provision of Medical Attention.
The law states that it is the duty of child protection visitors to satisfy themselves as to the
health and well-being of foster children and to give any necessary advice or directions as to the
care of their health and their maintenance but the law does not enable any particular standard
of living to be insisted on.
As indicated previously the fees paid to foster mothers are usually low. 15s. a week is
nothing more than a reasonable sum on which to maintain a child in Willesden. But the 15s. a
week child life protection foster child is in the minority and the initial outfit with which it goes to
its foster mother usually the scantiest.
In the cases dealt with in child life protection work the child's mother often has very little
or no money and must find a foster home to suit her purse. It is not possible, therefore, for the welfare
authority who are making no payments to exact any great standard of living and to say, for instance,
that all foster children must have a pint of milk a day.
A further matter which causes considerable concern is the provision of medical attention for
foster children.
We are informed that only persons who are destitute and unable otherwise to obtain medical
attention are entitled to the services of the public assistance district medical officer and that a
foster mother who takes a child for reward should look to the parent to pay the cost of any medical
attention—a vain hope in most cases. This being so, it seems to us only human nature that a foster
mother, especially if payments are irregular or in arrears, will hesitate before calling in a doctor for
a foster child. Further, we understand that the procedure to obtain the services of a district medical
officer is by application to the nearest relieving officer, a procedure which in emergency is likely to
involve delay which a mother would not risk in the case of her own child.