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One of the major needs we are having to face is the greater demand for our case workers
to help and support the immigrant popultation which has come to live in our borough. The difference
in environment, culture and way of life, which they are experiencing, causes many problems of
adjustment, especially in the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children and of
the family in the society in which they are living. They are often very bewildered and confused by
the complex nature of our urban society, not least by the much more permissive attitude we have
towards children and the emphasis we place on the parent-child relationship. We are becoming
more and more aware that we need greater knowledge and facts about immigrants and that research
is needed on a national scale to find the real problems and then on to try to solve them for the
benefit, not only of the immigrants, but of our own indigenous population.
Our aim is to improve the standards of Child Care, both in field work and residential
work and we have, therefore, encouraged our Child Care Officers and Houseparents to attend
courses, both full-time and part-time under the auspices of the Central Training Council of the
Home Office and the London Boroughs' Training Committee. We have co-operated in the giving of
information to several agencies engaged in research in diverse problems and we have contributed
to the training of our future social workers by taking several students from different universities
and colleges of higher education. Our senior staff have organised practical training for them in
social work and residential work and provided tuition and intensive supervision. As the national
demand for practical placements by professional courses in Child Care, as well as in other
branches of social work, is so great, we increased the number of students we took during the last
summer for training. This work is vitally important, but makes very heavy demands on our more
senior and experienced staff. They are only too willing to help in trying to meet the desperate
shortage of trained social workers throughout the country. To improve the skills of our own staff,
in-service courses of seminars have been arranged and given by the senior staff, some for the
newer and less experienced Child Care Officers and others for all the staff, including Houseparents,
to discuss problems of children and to increase our knowledge and new ideas and concepts in
Child Care.
The work of the department has increased during the last year and this is shown in the
statistical returns for 31st March, 1968:
31st March, 1968-
215 children in care (an increase of 24 from last year)
Boarded out with foster parents 99
Number in residential establishments including Children's
Homes and Nursery 95
Allowed home on trial 21
Ages of Children in Care, 31st March 1968-
Under the age of 2 years 17
Between 2 and 5 years 31
Of compulsory school age 123
15-18 years 44
We have found that in the second part of the year we have had much more pressure for vacancies
in our Children's Homes, as many of the children received into, or committed to care by the
Juvenile Court were not suitable or ready for boarding out with foster parents. Our Home in
-45-