Children in the Home
SIR,—I was very much interested in a paragraph in your issue of August 4th, " Treatment of Children in the Home," and the difficulties connected with their supervision. As an honorary social worker of many years standing I fully agree that visits from a great number of official or non- official persons to " problem-families " are greatly to be deplored, and may even prove harmful instead of helpful.
Might I suggest what appears to me an obvious solution of the problem, namely the employment of women housing managers who have been trained on the Octavia Hill system, a training which includes
social studies in addition to estate management. The rent collector visits the home weekly on perfectly legitimate business, so her visits caanut be resented by the householder as unwarranted interference.
Of course, to make such a scheme successful, it would be essential that the housing manager should be responsible only for a comparatively small group of houses, which would probably mean that the housing e,tate could not bear the full cost of the housing managers' salaries, part of whi.:11 might have to be met by welfare authorities. But the consequent reduc. tion in the numbers of officials would, I have no doubt, eventually reduce the cost to the ratepayers, who, if the recommendations of the three departments mentioned in your paragraph are carried out, will now be asked to bear the additional burden of salaries for "co-ordinating officers."—Yours faithfully, EMMA S. DUFFIN. Summer Hill, Stranmillis Road, Belfast.
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