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41
Number of persons on the register who were receiving children
for reward at the end of the year 118
(Of these 38 with children ; 80 without)
Number of children on the register at the beginning of the
year 78
Number of children received during the year 61
Number of children removed from the register during the
year 90
Removed to care of parents 43
Removed to care of another foster mother 16
Removed to charitable organisation, etc. 6
Removed to hospital 19
At exempted premises 10
Child attained the age of nine years 3
Child died 1
Number of children on the register at the end of the year 49
One residential school receives children under nine years of age. In
addition, there are two schools exempted.
Under the new arrangements the supervision of foster children will
be in the hands of the Children's Committee of the Health Authority,
so will not be a function delegated to the Local Area Committee. In
the same way the supervision of the adopted child will be dealt with by
the Children's Committee.
During the year 10 notices were received under Section 7 of the
Adoption of Children's Act. At the end of the year 20 children were
under supervision.
SUPERVISION OF CHILDREN.
Day Nurseries.
The four day nurseries maintained by the Council as part of its
child welfare service continued to be in demand throughout the year,
most of the places in each section of each nursery being occupied
even though the admissions of children were restricted to those of
mothers engaged whole time on work classed as of being of national
importance, and in general only one child from any family being
accepted.
Up to this year the Council had continued the Ministry's practice
of making a uniform charge of one shilling per head per day. During
the year it was decided instead to make the standard charge the cost
to the authority, reducing this sum in accordance with the financial
circumstances of the applicants. As it seemed that the application of
the scale suggested would operate harshly on those of small families
and especially on the mother who was the sole support of her family,
the scale of recovery was amended so that the first 30s. of the mother's
earnings were not brought into account. The standard charge was
fixed at five shillings and a smaller percentage was to be recovered in
each case. Coinciding with the bringing into operation of this new
scale a number of mothers withdrew their children from the nurseries.
In some cases it is probable that the higher charge made was the real
cause for the withdrawal; in others it might well have been merely the
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