The institutional care of children: a case history

This an attempt to indicate some of the problems connected with the administration of a Children's Home through the study of the origin, growth and contemporary problems of the Jewish Orphanage. An historical survey w1ll describe the social forces which influenced the changes in policy and affected the internal administration of the Home, the procedure in selecting children for admission, the choice of children eligible for admission and the nature of child care within the Institution. A detailed study is made of the administration of the Orphanage in the decade following the close of the last war when the children had returned to residence after evacuation. A classification is made of the reasons why children were admitted, of the ages on admission, of the period they remained in residence, and of their destination when they left. An examination is made of some of the problems which confronted the administrators both with regard to the behaviour of the children and the attitude and character of the staff. Specific reference is made to the education and religious training of the children and to the problems arising from parent-child and staff-child relationships. Although the material for this study of the institutional care of children has been gathered mainly from a Home which catered for a selective group of the population, it is believed that many of the problems discussed have implications of some significance in the general study of child care.