A Circular on Children
The circular addressed to local authorities by the Home Office and the Ministries of Health and Education in regard to the recom- mendations of the Curtis Report must be looked upon as little more than a salve to the consciences of the Ministers themselves. It consists simply of an exhortation to the numerous authorities con- cerned to discharge satisfactorily duties which they had discharged (as the Curtis Committee plainly showed) unsatisfactorily in the past, and corresponds in no way to the description of it given in last week's debate: " it urges action and points out ways in which things can be done." The Curtis Committee made 6a recommenda- tions, of which well over 4o require only administrative, not legislative, action, but the circular refers specifically to no single one of them. This is a case in which vague exhortation is valueless. As things stand, local authorities, not knowing what changes in machinery the Government proposes to make, can be forgiven if they are disposed for the moment to wait and see. Two recom- mendations the Curtis Committee put forward with emphasis—that at the centre the care of all "deprived" children should be entrusted to a single Government department, and that in the localities the work should be carried out by a single ad hoc committee, appointed by and reporting direct to the County or County Borough Council con- cerned ; such committees exist already in some progressive counties. The first recommendation, which can be applied without fresh legis- lation, should be applied at once, and agreement that the right department is the Home Office is steadily growing. Once a single Department is in sole charge it can begin preparing the requisite legislation with the speed that the situation demands.
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