Foster-Homes
SIX—As a trained social-worker and mother of children I read with -great interest the article, The Defence of the Child, by Dame Myra Curtis. It is true that children are happy in most foster-homes ; never- theless the cases which come to fight in the newspapers of ghastly ill- usage of these children in foster-homes horrify me and many other mothers. Considering the cost to the country of staffing expenses, &c., there should be no such cases of neglect—with some of which appar- ently the authorities had been out of-touch for some weeks.
It may be that the Children's Officer (mentioned in the article) has to send deputies for this routine inspection; and the enthusiastic young student is sent (also mentioned in the article). May 1 make a suggestion? I remember my .own student days, visiting in the poorer districts of London and feeling also enthusiastic and well-meaning, when I collected information of the most personal nature from these East-end mothers, comparing housing, cleanliness, &c. What impertinence it must have seemed to these women ! Now, I think that these foster-mothers should be visited by trained older women, married women with children of their own if possible, who can understand the housekeeping problems of today and can talk with equal understanding to foster-father or -mother and can surely more sanely judge if a house is clean and a child happy, instead of being " taken-in" by superficial details. I maintain that this is a job which cannot be properly done by young women, however well trained and interested in the work. There are plenty of middle-aged women with growing-up children who were trained in social work, ex-almoners, factory welfare-officers, &c., who would dearly love to use their,experience to guard these children.
What about a panel of part-time children's foster-home visitors under the Children's Officer attached to each county ? I feel certain this would lessen the chances of ill-treatment and neglect in the foster-homes. I have applied, when vacancies have occurred, but apparently the young full-time worker is preferred. Surely here is work which really suits the older trained women. Here is a source of keen, capable, experienced women, waiting to be used and anxious to guard the children, and heir
the foster-parents.—Yours faithfully, ' MARY S. MACKAILL. S7 Minster Road, Godalming, Surrey.
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