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The most convenient of the London Hospitals at which treatment is
provided are St. Mary's Hospital, Cambridge Place, Paddington, and
University College Hospital, Gower Street.
PROVISION FOR SPECIAL CLASSES OF PERSON.
The Deprived Child.
The Children Act, 1948, put into effect the main recommendations of
the Curtis Committee, providing a comprehensive service for the deprived
child, that is, the child who has neither parents nor guardian, or has
been and remains abandoned by its parents or guardian, or is lost; or
whose parents or guardian are for the time being or permanently prevented
by reason of mental or bodily disease or infirmity or other incapacity, or
other circumstances, from providing for its proper accommodation, maintenance
and upbringing.
Administered centrally by the Home Office, locally the duty falls on
the Children's Committee of the County Council and the Children's Officer
(Miss J. Rowell, of 10, Great George Street, S.W.I. Tel. No. Whitehall
4400). In this area the work is carried out by the Area Children's Officer,
Miss Susan Boag, at the County Council's Children's Care Office, 48,
Station Road, Harrow (Tel. No. Harrow 2963).
The Authority has to assume the responsibility for receiving him
into its care when it appears their intervention is necessary in the interests
of the welfare of the child, any deprived child in their area under the
age of 17. In certain circumstances the Authority are able to assume
parental powers and rights. Another group for whom the Authority are
directly responsible are children committed to their care by a Juvenile
Court under the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933. In regard to
those children for whom the Authority is responsible, it is their duty to
further their best interests. The children can be maintained by being
boarded out or being placed in residential homes provided under the
Act, or in voluntary homes. The child life provisions of the Public Health
Act which hitherto applied to children taken for reward while under
nine years of age, are now extended to all children taken for reward while
under school-leaving age. A child placed for reward will continue under
supervision after it reaches school-leaving age as long as it remains with
the foster parents with whom it was living when it reached school-leaving
age, and is under 18. There is a similar extension of Section 7 of the
Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act, 1939, which provides for the
supervision of children placed through third parties in the care and
possession of a person who is not the child's parent or guardian or near
relative.
The Handicapped Adult.
The former Poor Law officers under the Public Health Acts had a
wide range of duties, including arranging for the care of the needy or
destitute and the mentally afflicted. The latter service is now in the
hands of the Mental Health Section, the authorised officers being Mr.
W. J. Pedel and Mr. W. Bullwinkle, of 48, Station Road, Harrow. Tel.
No. Harrow 1252.