The Foster Home and the Boarded Out Child
- Author:
Dyson. Allen & Unwin. 6s.
The Report of the ” Curtis Committee ” and the publicity which preceded its setting-up have focused attention on the care of children deprived of normal home life. This book is a discussion of one method of caring for such children?by boarding out in foster homes under the supervision of a responsible authority. Miss Dyson presents the advantages of this method of care and discusses how best to carry it out in terms of the type of children suited for it and the type of homes able to offer it. The special difficulties that beset the foster child and foster parent are discussed as well as the responsibilities of the supervisor.
Laws for child protection may be good or bad, extensive or totally inadequate, but at best they can only provide a framework for those who are working for the homeless child. Although in this book the legal position is described in outline, its main purpose is to consider foster home care in terms of the personal relationships involved?those of child to foster parents, and foster parents to foster child, and of supervisor to foster home. The adequate investigation of prospective foster homes is stressed, and in particular the value of outside references and the importance of not relying only on personal observation, but the supervisor must never be regarded as an inspector, with the duty of enforcing certain standards; she is always a co-worker who shares her skill, wisdom and experience with those who have the day to day care of the child. This skill and wisdom must of course be acquired and the need for training in addition to the possession of suitable personal qualities is implied throughout, though not discussed in detail. Miss Dyson writes from a wide knowledge of social work and in particular from her recent experiences as Chief Executive Officer of Boarding Out, Dr Barnardo’s Homes. Her purpose is not to provide a text book for the trainee or social science student, or even to discuss some of the deeper implications of her subject, but she describes in a simple and straightforward way how an important piece of social work can be carried out with advantage to the child and to the community, given goodwill and understanding by those taking part. K.E.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.