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enough to industrial areas to provide adequate opportunities for
employment, and nursery accommodation is essential. It is also
desirable that girls should be accommodated in hostels outside
the area in which they have been living. A hostel in the Sutton
area would serve all the surrounding County districts, and I suggest
that the County Council or a combination of adjoining
Maternity and Child Welfare Authorities be requested to consider
the possibility of establishing such a hostel.
It was resolved that an invitation be extended to the neighbouring
autonomous Maternity and Child Welfare Authorities
to discuss the question of the provision of a hostel.
In April, 1944, a conference of the autonomous Maternity
and Child Welfare Authorities was held at Mitcham. The need
for hostel accommodation was generally agreed, but the Medical
Officer of Health of Mitcham was requested to draw up concrete
proposals for establishing a hostel in order that the position
might be more fully discussed at a subsequent meeting.
The following report was submitted to the Maternity and
Child Welfare Committee: —
The number of illegitimate children born has considerably
increased since 1939, and in many areas this increase exceeds
50 per cent.
The Moral Welfare Associations have always undertaken the
main responsibilities for the care of these eases, and local
authorities have been asked to contribute only occasionally to
the cost of maintenance of special cases. These local Moral
Welfare Associations are largely independent in their administration,
but most of them in this part of Surrey are affiliated to
the Southwark Diocesan Association for Moral Welfare who, in
a few instances, make small financial grants.
The Moral Welfare Associations employ social welfare
workers, and consultation with these experienced workers has
shown that they are unanimously agreed on the following points:
1. That further institutional accommodation is urgently
required.