Instructions to Foster Parents

INSTRUCTIONS TO FOSTER PARENTS including, diet, timetables and swimming rotas

General

Your chief work is to train the children committed to your care as may best tend to the formation of good character and of habits of industry, cleanliness, honesty, straightforwardness, thrift, civility and self-reliance.

Their special Industrial Training, whether in handicraft or domestic duties, should be such as to make them thorough and orderly in their work, and as quick and expert as their intelligence and physical strength may permit. Especially do your best to make their home a cheerful and happy one, so that its good influence may accompany and benefit them when they leave you.

Daily Report (see appendix Daily Report Sheet)

The Daily Report Sheet should be carefully filled up and sent to the Superintendent's Office by 8.30 a.m. with the Requisition Sheet.

On Sundays, should any matter of urgency arise, the Report Sheet should be sent to the Superintendent's House. It is very important that all requisitions for articles wanted, reports or complaints, should be made to the Superintendent in writing on the Daily Report Sheets. (Requisitions for provisions, necessaries, etc., are made on forms specially provided for that purpose).

DISCIPLINE:

The power to exercise a wise, firm, yet kindly discipline over children is perhaps the most important qualification in a Foster Parent.

REWARDS:

Your Home, however clean and tidy it may be kept, is a failure, if the children are not as a rule bright, cheerful and happy. Reward is with children far more effective in producing cheerful obedience and good work yet it will have beneficial results. It is astonishing how small a favour is appreciated by a child. e.g., nothing more delights a child than for an adult to show interest in its childish game. The reward may be as simple as the gift of a piece of ribbon, a few garden seeds, a picture card, a flower - expensive rewards are not essential, the main thing is to find out and recognise something good in the child's behaviour or its work. It is this recognition that the child appreciates and is encouraged by.

PUNISHMENTS:

It will of course be found that occasionally a child will behave badly in spite of the kindest treatment. Such a child must be punished. An intelligent Foster Parent will find many means of effectually punishing a child without reporting the child to the Superintendent or Matron, which, to make such a course effective, should be the last resource. Deprivation from any special dish at the table, e.g. fruit pie, or currant cake, &c., or from the swimming bath, or from gymnastic drill, &c., or from an entertainment - will often be keenly felt as a punishment if awarded as such. Do not allow your children to speak disrespectfully of any other officer. If you encourage your children to be respectful to others, they are likely to be respectful to you. With some thirty children in the Home, there must necessarily be much to worry and annoy, but do your utmost at all times to preserve a good temper and a cheerful demeanour.(Miss Nixon supposedly did not read this!)

HEALTH

OUTDOOR EXERCISE AND PLAY- The children of each Cottage should, excepting in inclement weather, be taken for a walk outside the Homes at least twice a week, and one of these occasions should be a week-day. An intelligent Foster Parent will make these walks a means of valuable instruction to the children. When epidemic disease is prevalent, town and village should be avoided. In the summer time the children of each Cottage will be taken into the fields to play, weather permitting, on two evenings in the week, and (if not out walking) on Saturday afternoon also.

VENTILATION

Bed Rooms - The ventilator over the bed-room door should be open at all times. All the bedroom windows should , except in in wet or damp weather, be opened immediately after the children are up in the morning and remain open all day.

Other Rooms - In day-rooms, dining-rooms and sitting-rooms, the windows should be freely opened, and ventilators should on no account, excepting in the severest weather, be closed. It is very important also, that the windows of the lavatories, and especially of the w.c.'s, should be kept open.

All windows should be opened at the top.

FOOD

Foster Parents should be careful that the food is well cooked and served, and as great a variety in the dinner should be introduced as may commend itself to the good sense of the Foster Parent, or be possible with the articles of diet allowed.

The Foster Parent should invariably be present at meal times, and care should be taken that the children are served in quantities suitable to their requirements, it is very much better to serve twice than too much at once. Porridge and pease pudding and nourishing soups should frequently form part of the children's dietary (sic), especially in winter-time.

The bread for bread and butter, &c, should not be given in unreasonable thick slices.

Washing and Bathing

See that the children use their own towels &c., when either washing or bathing, or at the swimming-bath. All children should was their hands and faces before each meal, using their own towels. Careful supervision will be need in the girls' cottages to prevent more than one child washing in the same water. The time for bathing on Friday evening should be strictly adhered to.(Mum says they had baths 3 times a week - little ones washed by Miss Allen)The younger children should be bathed much more frequently than once a week, especially in warm weather, but the exact time and frequency of this may be left to the discretion of the Foster Parent.

Bathing Rules. For Bathing Rules see Appendix

SICKNESS

EYES - Foster Parents should give particular attention to the condition of the eyes of the children upon their rising in the morning, and should their eyes appear to be in any way affected do not fail to report the same.

CONTAGIOUS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE

- A careful examination of your children when bathing will frequently enable you to detect the first appearance of rash, &c. When you observe any rash, or have any reason to suspect any infectious ro contagious disease, at once isolate the child and report to the Superintendent or Matron in writing, and allow no child to leave the house till permission is give.

(1) The spare bedroom should be used where possible when a child is isolated for contagious disease, and in cases of scarlatina, measles, small pox, &c., a sheet saturated with disinfectant should be hung inside and outside the door of the room in which the child is place.

(2) The Foster Parent should wear some over-all garment in the infected room, which can be left between the suspended sheets when not in use.

(3) Disinfecting fluid must be placed in the chamber, and anything coming from the room should be most thoroughly disinfected.

(4) Other children should be prevented from going near the room of the sick child; and should it be necessary to remove the child from one part of the house to another, all other children should be sent into the back garden or to a remote part of the house.

(5) Immediately after the removal of the sick child, the sheets hanging at the door of the patient's room should be again saturated with disinfectant, the door locked, and the passages through which the child has passed should be thoroughly ventilated. If the room is not sulphured within an hour of the patient's removal from it, application should be made to the Superintendent for this to be done.

(6) When a cottage is isolated, no other person than the Doctor is to pass in or out without the permission from the Superintendent.

The supply of goods from the store will be placed on the door-step by the store boy, who will afterward call for the empty basket. The store-boy will not be allowed to come into contact with anyone answering the bell.

(7) When an ambulance is in the street, Foster Parents will keep the children as far away from it as possible.

Medicines, &c.

Foster Parents must personally carry out all orders given to them by the Medical Officer with respect to the sick children of their cottages treated in the Home, personally taking charge of and administering drugs and applying ointments and using disinfectants and where directed by the medical officer a medical treatment card should be used, showing diet, &c., and these cards must be preserved.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS

Foster Parents should visit each dormitory before retiring for the night. No two children should occupy the same bed. A small light should be left on the landing.

Bed Linen and blankets should be specially arranged for inspection on the day appointed by the Matron.

The linen and blankets soiled by children should be washed, dried, aired and frequently renewed, and their beds refilled with sufficient frequency to keep them sweet.

LAUNDRY WORK (The only laundry work mum did was to carry the basket of clean laundry to the boys' cottages)

Foster Parents are to personally assist in the washing and laundry work, and only the bigger children should be allowed to work at the copper, mangle or ironing stove, which work should be under the careful supervision and direction of the foster mother. A wash woman to assist in the washing will, where possible, be allowed on two days in the week in the Girls' Cottage and two women on one day in the week on the Boys' Cottages. Boys must not assist in the washing. Only children over 12 are to assist with the mangling, and when no wash woman is present the mangle must be padlocked. The washer should put the things through the mangle, and the child only turn the mangle.

LAVATORIES.

A complete set of towels should be provided for the lavatory three times a week and no tow children should, on any occasion, use the same towel. The towels must bear the same number as the towel peg, and the number renewed if washed out. Only towels, flannels for washing, and brush and comb bags should be allowed upon the lavatory pegs. Dresses and articles of clothing should on no account be placed there. The elder girls should avail themselves of the provision made for washing in their bedroom.

SUNDAYS

No unnecessary works should be done on Sunday; on no account any scrubbing

The children of each Home should be taken occasionally to the village Church, say at least once or twice a month, and not more than two children should, as a rule, be kept at home during the time of Divine Service at the Homes. The presence of Foster Parents at the ordinary Sunday Service is welcomed by the Chaplain, and is a good example to the children.

GENERAL DOMESTIC WORK

Upon the proper organisation of the work in the Home will, to a great extent, depend its order and cleanliness, and the absence of undue pressure upon the children.

Each child should know exactly what work it has to do and the proper time for doing it.

A good manager will get as much work as possible done before the children have to get ready for school, and Foster Parents must rise on the morning with the children in order to secure this.

A judicious Foster Parent will from time to time redistribute the work among the children, so that no child shall be kept for a long period exclusively at one kind of work, e.g., a child with no other work than scrubbing would be discouraged, and be wholly unprepared for domestic work when she went out to service.

It is of the utmost importance that the working girls should have their fair share of play and outdoor exercise. Foster Parents should insist upon the wearing of slippers in the Home, and the use of kneelers and suitable aprons for the work they are doing, e.g., waterproof aprons should be used at the washtub, &c.

GARDENS

The vegetable and flower gardens in the boys cottages' will be cultivated by the foster fathers with the aid of the bigger boys. The produce of the gardens of the boys' homes will be used in the cottage to which the garden belongs.

It is expected that the Foster Mother of these Homes will take an interest in the front gardens, and with the aid of the girls do the lighter work of weeding, &c.

Children should be taught the names of the various flowers, &c., and encouraged to take an interest in their cultivation. Each of the bigger boys should be allowed to have a small plot of ground to cultivate as his own garden, and a spirit of emulation encouraged among these boys by their Foster Parents in this work.

It will add much to the tidy appearance of the Home and its surroundings, if the children (and the little ones can do this) are taught to pick up the pieces of paper, sticks, dead leaves, and other rubbish that may be blown about.

REPAIR OF CLOTHING

It is the duty of the Foster Mother, with the aid of the children, to mend the children's clothes, and to see that they are kept in good repair. Extensive repairs to boys' suits will be done in the tailor's shop. All repairs to house linen, &c., will also be done in the cottage to which it belongs by the Foster Parent, assisted by the children.

SICK LEAVE.

Officers too ill for duty will notify the same to the Superintendent on the Report Sheet.

OFF DUTY ARRANGEMENTS

No resident Officer is to be absent from the premises without the consent of the Superintendent or Matron, unless on duty with the children.

The maximum time allowed to Foster Parents off duty will be half a day per week; the half-day may be extended into a whole day once a month; but a thoughtful regard to the exigencies of the Homes should be exercised by the officers applying for leave.

As a rule, this leave will be granted, but in no case where the care of the children and necessary work of the Home cannot be properly provided for in the absence of the officer asking leave.

In addition to the above off-leave, officers may attend a place of worship, outside the Homes, if the officer applying for this leave can arrange with another officer (subject to the approval of the Superintendent or Matron) to take the responsibility of the cottage left in temporary charge.

ANNUAL HOLIDAYS

.A proposal for the annual holidays of the officers will be prepared by the Superintendent, and submitted by him for approval annually in May.

SMOKING

Officers are not to smoke in the shops at any time, nor in the roadway of the Homes in their ordinary work hours, nor in going to and from their work through the Homes.

PRECAUTION IN FROSTY WEATHER

Windows of Washhouses and of rooms or outhouses where water pipes are exposed should be closed. Taps should be left to drip, and immediate notice should be given to the Engineer should it be found that the hot water tap over the sink will not run; in this case the kitchen fire should not be lit till the Engineer has stated it will be safe to do so.

In the event of a water pipe bursting, immediate notice should be given to the Engineer.

WORKSHOPS

GRADUATED SYLLABUS

The Industrial training of the children must be systematic, and where possible, a graduated syllabus of instruction should be prepared by the trainer and exhibited in the shops.

INSTRUCTION IN ABOVE

The Carpenter, Engineer, Gardener and Painter should make a point of giving special instruction in the subjects of the syllabus mentioned above, between three and four in the afternoon, excepting when urgently required for other work outside the shop.

An account of the work done and quantity of material received and used should be kept by each trainer.

Requisitions for material and articles for shop use should be sent to the Superintendent, placed in the Rough Estimate Book on or before Wednesday morning three weeks in advance of actually wanting the goods for use.

Attendance Books.

The shop attendance books are to be regularly and carefully marked, and a report should be sent to the Superintendent when any child is improperly detained at home.The floors and windows of shops should be cleaned on Saturday mornings, and at all times the sops should b kept in an orderly workmanlike condition.No work, except that for the School Premises or children, is to be done in the workshops, without the sanction of the Superintendent.

PROBATIONARY LODGE

1. Children are to be bathed upon admission and upon Friday evenings, the younger more frequently. The Foster Mother in charge of the Probationary Lodge must give special attention to the health and cleanliness of the children admitted, and generally carry out the instructions given to other Foster Parents.

2. She will especially see that no child in the Probationary Lodge comes into contact with other children in the Homes.

3. She will once a week, if the weather be suitable and the whole of the children well enough to go, take the children for a short walk.

4. Upon admission of each set of children she will, after bathing them, provide them with garments, boots, &c., from the Probationary Store, the clothing received from the Work-house being at once packed up and returned.

5. On the day appointed for the children to leave the Probationary Ward for the cottages, the children will, after being bathed, be fitted up with clothes sent from the general store or from the cottages, and then sent, not later than 11 am., to the Superintendent's Office.

ENTRANCE GATE

Porter's Book

1. The name of all persons entering or leaving the Homes must be entered. Officers names in red ink, other persons names in black ink, with time of entry or going out, together with such other particulars as may be required to fill up the various columns in the book.

2. When children are admitted or discharged, the letters A or D should be distinctly inserted opposite their name.

3. The weight of each child to be taken and inserted in a book provided for that purpose.

4. Children (inmates) are not allowed to go out of the gate without a pass from the Superintendent or Matron.

5. It will not be necessary to insert the names of the children who are being taken out in bodies by an officer for a walk or to church, but the number of children going from each Cottage and the name of the officer in charge should be noted.

6. Male visitor are not allowed to the girls' cottages or to the infirmary without special permission from the Superintendent

7. No person will be admitted between 10.30 at night ab 6 in the morning, without special permission.

8. Officers are not to send children on trifling errands and on no account to a public-house for intoxicants, Girls belonging to the Homes are not allowed to go through the gate unless accompanied by an officer.

9. When in exceptional cases officers desire to return to the Homes later than 10.30, application must be made to the Superintendent for late leave.

BATHING RULES

1. Each child is to be bathed every Friday evening, the younger children more frequently.

8th august 1923. Decided by the board that bathing rule no 3. shall read "not more than two (instead of three) children shall be bathed in the same water

Signed H.E. Steed

(rule 2/3/4 not there)

5. The toe nails of each child should be cut once a week, and finger nails more frequently; their heads should be combed with a small-tooth comb at least once a week.

6. Foster Parents should carefully inspect each child before and after bathing; before bathing to prevent any child who may have ring worm or other eruption, from bathing with other children; after bathing that any rash which may appear may at once be detected and reported.

7. Children in the Probationary Ward are to be bathed on the evening of admission.

REGULATIONS AS REGARDS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

1.In general children reaching 14 years of age, will be exempted by the committee from school attendance.

2. Continuation classes are held in the boys' school under the head master on Monday and Tuesday evenings, from 7 till 8.30, during the winter months for all exempt boys.

Extract from regulations of local government board:

art 33. No corporal punishment shall be inflicted on any female child.

Art 34. No corporal punishment shall be inflicted on any male child except by the Superintendent, or by some person appointed by the Guardians, and acting under the directions of the Superintendent, or by the School-master for offences committed during School.

Art 37. Whenever corporal punishment is inflicted on any male child two officers shall be present; and when any person other than the Superintendent inflicts corporal punishment on any male child, such person shall forthwith report the particulars of the offence and punishment to the Superintendent who shall enter the same in the book specified in Article 38

Art 38. The Superintendent shall keep a book, to be furnished by the Guardians, in the Form No 2, in which he shall duly enter all cases of children who have been punished with the particulars of their respective offences and punishment. Such book shall be laid before the Committee who shall take into consideration the cases in which punishments are reported who have been inflicted and shall record in the same book their approval or disapproval if such punishment in every case.

Art 77 Duties of Foster Parents

1. To see that the children rise and go to bed at the proper hours, and to get them ready for school a quarter of an hour before the time appointed for leaving the home for school.

2. To prepare all the daily meals and to serve then at the proper hour, taking them in company with the children.

3. To see that the children are properly cleansed and clothed, that they wash three times daily, and are bathed once at least weekly.

4. To keep all the rooms, beds, bedding, &c., properly cleansed and in good order.

5. To instruct the children in washing, cooking and household work.

6. To read prayers before breakfast and after supper daily.

7. To see all fires and lights out by nine o'clock, except such as are necessary.

8. To report to the Superintendent or Matron any symptoms of sickness she may observe among the children, immediately they occur.

9. To obey all lawful directions of the Superintendent or Matron, and to report to them any misconduct among the children, and generally to assist the Superintendent and Matron in the maintenance of order and discipline, and to observe and fulfil all lawful orders and directions of the Guardians suitable to the office.

ISSUE OF STORES.

All requisitions for provisions and necessaries, crockery, brooms, hardware, &c., should reach the stores not later than 8.30 a.m.

Necessaries

Tuesday: Requisitions for necessaries should be sent to the Stores on Tuesday morning, and baskets for the goods on Tuesday afternoons. The goods will be issued on Wednesdays.

Provisions:

Thursday: Requisitions for provisions supplied weekly should be sent to the Stores on Thursday mornings, and baskets for the goods during the afternoon of the same day. The provisions will be issued on Fridays.

Bread and milk and Ale for Officers are issued daily. Bread at 8.30, Ale between 10 and 10.30.

Meat is issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Vegetables are issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays Saturdays, but must be requisitioned on the previous day.

Crockery, Hardware, Brooms, brushes, combs, &c., must be requisitioned, if wanted, on the first Monday in each calendar month.

Note:- The articles to be replaced, whether broken or worn out, are to be sent to the Store for inspection.

CLOTHING

All requisitions for clothing, house linen, bedding, materials for mending, &c., must be made on Saturday morning before 10 O'clock, and old garments to be replaced must be sent to the Stores at the same time for inspection.

N.B. The responsibility for being without any stores mentioned above rests with the Foster Parents, etc., until requisition has been made on paper at the proper time.

Foster Parents are responsible for sending boots and slippers to be repaired as soon as they need it, and on the appointed days.

SAINT LEONARD, SHOREDITCH

COTTAGE HOMES, HORNCHURCH

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DAILY REPORT

_________________

*Roll was called and children inspected by me at ......O'clock

No. of Children present, Boys:- .....Girls:-..... Total:-.....

+Children who are sick or suffering from any complaint this morning in your Home

Name.............................Age...................................Complaint.....................................

..................................................................................................................................

Names of Children to be kept at home for housework this morning.......................

................................................................

Names of Children to be kept at home for housework this afternoon..................

..............................................................

Mention defects (if any) in the Sanitary, Heating or Gas arrangements, or Water Supply of your Home or matters of general repair (house) or (Head-Teacher) at school.................................

..............................

Any other matters to which you wish to call the attention of the Superintendent - e.g., specially bad conduct of any child................................

..........................................Foster Parent

Date .........................190..

This report should be sent to the Superintendent's Office, or to the Stores, every morning by 8.30 with the Requisition Sheet.

*This inspection should take place at between 8.00 and 8.30 so that there is sufficient time before the School Call is sounded, to allow of faults as regards cleanliness, &c., to be rectified.

+Cases which arose in your Cottage yesterday after your report was sent in must also be entered here and marked "Special" unless you at the time sent a Special Report to the Superintendent (as an Urgency Case) and must also include any cases discovered by the Medical Officer at his visit.

PARISH OF ST LEONARD, SHOREDITCH

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COTTAGE HOMES, HORNCHURCH

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REGUALTIONS

To be observed by Relatives and Friends visiting Children

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1. That except in cases of illness or under urgent circumstances no visitor be permitted to a child without an order from the Clerk's office.2. That the visiting day be on the second and fourth Mondays in each month between 2 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

3. That no visit exceed TWO hours IN DURATION.

4.That no visitor be permitted to see a child (unless sick) elsewhere than in the waiting room at the porter's lodge,

5. That no communication be allowed between Visitors or Friends of the Children and the Foster Parents of the Homes, except through the Superintendent and Matron.

by order

Robert Clay

Clerk to the Guardians

Office - 213, Kingsland Road