Difficult Children
^?stelsfor A Survey of Experience under the Evacuation Scheme. Issued by the Ministry of Health. H.M. Stationery Office. 6d. ? This Report is issued as the result of enquiries made 1943 into the working of 48 Hostels run for <> unbilletable ” children under the Evacuation Scheme. cUch Hostels aim not only at providing ” shelter and (lare> or even a happy and well ordered routine ” but t, a.t fitting the children for ordinary life by rebuilding stability and confidence.”
The enquiry covered 12 Hostels for boys only, and ann 8^s onlV> a?e^ 8 to 16; one each for boys only girls only, aged 5 to 11, and 18 mixed Hostels, ~ taking girls up to 14 plus, but boys only up to 11 or s Vn?er. jt js suggested that this last is the most factory arrangement.
f ‘he number of children in any one Hostel varied n?m 12 to 45, and the Survey makes it clear that ” it is th t 6as^ to Provi^e the right environment in a Hostel contains more than about 25 children”. The s ?stels are not arranged in such a way as to cater for beparate kinds of behaviour problems. Indeed it has found ” unsatisfactory to have in one hostel too Pa t ^ children whose difficulties show themselves in a j^’cular way But it is found in practice that each ch lH?n or warden has particular aptitudes for helping and n w^? are *n one difficulty or another once these aptitudes declare themselves, they can childCry useful’y ta^en int0 account in placing any one Sa^he pamphlet has some wise and practical things to vith out Hostel staffs. ” The essentials are, sympathy Und children, ability to win their confidence, and remanding of their fundamental needs, together exi t a reahzation of the purpose for which a Hostel (jjJts?namely, to help each child to overcome its Acuities, and to become eventually a person who can stand up to the demands made by life in an ordinary ? family and in the world outside it.”
In this connection, reference is made in the Report to the profit derived by Hostel Staffs who have attended the courses and conferences organized in different parts of the country by the Ministry of Health or by the Provisional National Council for Mental Health on behalf of the Ministry. At these courses lectures and talks have been given on children’s difficulties and their causes, on play, hand-work, and occupational activities generally, and on other relevant subjects.
Interesting statistics are also given about a sample of 486 children, 392 boys and 94 girls in 23 Hostels. Of these, 190 had satisfactory homes (i.e. homes in which at least one of the parents had a good and stable relationship with the child) and 142 had homes which were unsatisfactory, 66 had no homes at all. The commonest reasons for admission were stealing and pilfering, bedwetting and unruly behaviour. A particularly interesting table (page 19) analyses the types of problems and the frequency of their occurrence in- girls and boys. Other tables give the ages of the Hostel children, the length of their stay, and their intelligence quotients. A brief section shows what happened to 62 children after they had left the Hostel.
In conclusion, the pamphlet indicates that the problems of evacuated children are also the problems ” familiar to both voluntary and official bodies responsible for Childrens’ Homes of various kindsIts whole outlook on these problems is humane and enlightened, and one can only regret that it gives no indication that the best of these Evacuation Hostels, with their admirable staff’s, will be kept in being after the war for the further nurture of homeless children. P.V.
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