Author of "The Girts Encyclopedia" " The Home Training of Children" " The Golden Book of Youth," etc.

Work that Makes an Appeal to Many Women - Watchful Care of Poor Children - Food and Treatment for the Neglected - Training for the Work - Cost of Training - Salaries

A branch of social work under municipal government which makes an appeal to many women is to be found in connection with Children's Care Committees.

It is full of human interest; it arouses not only the sympathy of a motherly woman for the neglected and wretched or ill-treated child, but stirs in her the desire to combat and remedy, so far as she can, some of the glaring evils of our social system.

Beneficent work of the kind described in this article is not confined to this country, nor to one town in it, but that carried on by the London County Council, with its Education Offices on the Victoria Embankment, London, naturally offers the widest field to women, whose special capacity for work of the ■ kind will be more and more utilised by the State in the interests of the child.

A Beneficent Scheme

Moreover, it has been recognised that something more than voluntary service is necessary if the work of teachers in the elementary schools is to be effectual and unhampered by home conditions that are hurtful to the child and heartrending and distracting to the teacher.

Under the new scheme of the London County Council, three organisations are at work on the children's behalf :

1. A Children's Care (Central) Sub-committee of the Education Committee.

2. Children's Care (School) Committees, with which women organisers are concerned.

3. Local Associations of such Care Committees.

The sphere of the organiser's work opened out as the work of the Care Committees grew. At first the provision of free meals for necessitous children was the great concern of the committees, and of the teachers who were vainly trying to instruct the minds of children who arrived at school too weak with hunger to take advantage of their instruction.

Work for Girls and Boys

As the relief so given extended, the workers discussed the urgent need for medical inspection of the children, especially for the need of spectacles and attention to defective teeth and ears. In January, 1909, the provision of meals for necessitous children was made chargeable to the ratepayers, and it became necessary to organise the Children's Care Committees.

Further, when the Labour Exchanges were opened, the question of juvenile employment necessarily became a concern of the Care Committees.

It was thought the Labour Exchanges would dispose of the unskilled juvenile worker, and the Apprenticeship Committee look after the skilled one ; but such has not proved entirely the case, and at present (1912) a Junior Advisory Committee works in conjunction with the Labour Exchanges in solving the problem of work for the ex-school boy or girl, and in consultation with the schoolmaster or schoolmistress. Hence the value of what are called "After-Care Committees."

Duties Of Organisers

It rests with the district organisers and their assistants to see that the boy and girl reap the benefit of the accumulated knowledge and advice of schoolmaster and Care Committee before passing on to the juvenile department of the Labour Exchange.

The duties of the woman organiser of a Children's Care (School) Committee may be briefly defined as "to develop and coordinate the work of the Children's Care Committee, which is responsible for the selection of necessitous children with regard to feeding, medical treatment, and other matters concerning the general welfare of the children." The members of the Care Committees being school and voluntary workers, and the organisers being responsible for these matters, it follows that if they fail to get members of the committee to concern themselves over particular children they must do so themselves.

The welfare of each child attending the elementary school to which the Care Committee is attached, rests ultimately upon the shoulders of the organiser and her assistant, if she has one, and involves inspection and inquiry on their part.

They endeavour to arouse interest in voluntary workers to persuade them to become members of the Care (School) Committee, and whenever possible, the organiser attends the meeting to give assistance and advice. Her work is arduous, reformatory, progressive, and while frequently depressing and saddening, yet hopeful, as she sees, now in one direction, now in another, her labours are not in vain, and she is able to set a helpless child on its feet, more prepared for the struggle of life. She may not earn a high salary, but a sufficiency is all that many a lone woman needs. She will find the work of an organiser full of absorbing interest, and she will realise, as she is bound to do, that she is helping forward the progress of the children's cause.

Salaries

The salary of an organiser ranges from £130 to £200 a year, rising by yearly increments of £10; assistant organisers are paid £100 a year, and temporary assistant organisers £2 a week. There is no age limit for a candidate, nor any special examination to be passed.

When a vacancy occurs, it is advertised in the " London County Council Gazette," and the committee selects the candidate considered most suitable for the post. The hours of work are seven a day, and the holidays correspond with those of the elementary schools. Officially, there are no special qualifications, but it does not need much discrimination or familiarity with the work to see that considerable tact, knowledge of human nature, firmness, strength of character, and acquaintance with social conditions and economic and Poor Law problems, as well as understanding of child nature and the home life of the industrial class, are valuable to an intending worker.