parents, the Provision of Meals Act, it will be remembered, laid down
that the Local Authorities should require payment unless satisfied that
the parents could not pay, and the cost might be recovered summarily as
a civil debt. In practice this has been found very difficult to
accomplish. It is impossible to tell from the returns how much of the
£1,570 received from parents in 1911-12 was contributed voluntarily, and
how much recovered after compulsion, but the amount recovered must
necessarily be very small.[320]
Footnote 320:
The amount recovered _after prosecution_ in 1911-12 was £42 10s. 6d.
for the whole of England and Wales, London accounting for more than
half this sum. (Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of
Education for 1911, pp. 325-7.) To this we must add the amount
recovered with more or less difficulty, but without prosecution.
Where the Local Education Authority confines the provision of meals
strictly to the cases where the family income is below a certain amount
per head, as at Leeds, there is of course little to be recovered,
attempts at recovery being limited to cases where the parents have made
an incorrect statement as to their income, and have therefore been
obtaining the meals under false pretences. At West Ham, indeed, the
Education Committee has interpreted the Provision of Meals Act to mean
that recovery must be attempted in every case where meals are supplied.
When a parent applies for meals for his children on the score of being
unable to provide for them himself--for only necessitous children are
fed, no provision being made for voluntary payment--he has to sign a
form by which he agrees to repay the cost of all meals which have been
supplied when he gets back into work and can afford to do so. Moreover,
he has to send a note every day saying that he still wishes his children
to be fed,[321] this being insisted on as a proof that meals have been
supplied in the event of an attempt at recovery. In any case the full
cost is rarely charged, the wage and the number of children being taken
into consideration, and a rebate of sometimes as much as 75 per cent.
being granted. But as a matter of fact very few accounts are sent to the
Borough Treasurer for collection, as the wages of nearly all the parents
of the children who are fed, even when they are in good work, are too
small to allow of their paying for meals supplied in the past.[322]
Footnote 321:
See ante, p. 64.
Footnote 322:
Report of the West Ham Education Committee for the year ending March
31, 1912, p. 54.
When the Local Education Authority is determined to provide food for all
children who need it, for those who are underfed through the neglect of
their parents to provide for them as well as for those whose parents are
too poor to do so, a considerable amount ought to be recovered. The
difficulty lies in the impossibility in many cases of securing
sufficient evidence of the parent's ability to pay. Magistrates are
notoriously loth to convict. At Bradford we were told that in numbers of
cases magistrates' orders for payment had been served on the parents,
but these orders were frequently disregarded by parents who knew the
practical difficulties in the way of enforcing them.[323]
Footnote 323:
In 1911 proceedings were taken against parents in only eight towns,
including London. The number of cases was 219, of which 147 were in
London. (Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education
for 1911, pp. 325-327.)
Whether the amount due for meals which have been already supplied is
paid by the parent or not, the commonest result of sending a notice that
the Local Authority intends to recover the cost is that the parents
refuse to allow their children any longer to receive the meals. "In
practice it is found," says the Bootle School Canteen Committee, "that
when action is taken to enforce payment the children are withdrawn by
their parents from further participation in the meals, with the result
that the children revert to their former ill-fed condition."[324] At
York, too, we were told that when a child who is found to be underfed
through neglect is put on the feeding-list and a letter written to the
father that he will be charged the cost of the meals, he invariably
writes back demanding that his child shall be taken off the list.
Nothing more is done and the child remains underfed. The Local Education
Authorities are, indeed, "on the horns of a dilemma in dealing with such
cases, as the Act obliges them to make this attempt to recover the cost,
and they know that the only result of their doing so will be that the
children are withdrawn from the meals."[325] So much has the Bradford
Education Authority felt this difficulty that they have more than once
sought power, by inserting a clause in the local Bills promoted by the
Corporation, to compel the attendance of children at meals in all cases
in which the School Medical Officer certifies that the children are
underfed, and to recover the cost. These efforts have so far proved
useless, it being held that such a clause involves a new principle and
cannot therefore be included in a local Act.[326]
Footnote 324:
Report on the work of the Bootle School Canteen Committee, 1910-11, p.
21. Since this date the Committee have accordingly made no attempt to
prosecute parents for repayment of the cost.
Footnote 325:
Extracts from Annual Reports of Bradford Education Committee for the
four years ended March 31, 1907, 1908, 1909 and 1910, p. 13.
Footnote 326:
At Bradford a child who is underfed through neglect is put on the
feeding-list for a month before the bill is sent to its parents, so
that it may receive the benefit of the meals for this period at any
rate.
The question of dealing with neglectful parents is indeed beset with
difficulties. Under the Children Act, 1908, a parent or guardian can be
prosecuted for neglecting a child "in a manner likely to cause such
child unnecessary suffering or injury to its health." This neglect is
defined to mean those cases where the parent or guardian "fails to
provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid or lodging," or, if unable
to provide the same himself, fails to apply to the Guardians for
relief.[327] It is rare for the Local Education Authorities themselves
to institute proceedings under this Act. Usually they prefer to refer
cases to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Often an
improvement in the condition of the child is effected as a result of the
visits of this society's inspectors to the home. But when these warnings
prove useless, frequently nothing more is done; the society are loth to
prosecute, except in extreme cases when they can be practically certain
of securing a conviction.
Footnote 327:
8 Edward VII., c. 67, sec. 12.
(g)--Overlapping between the Poor Law and the Education Authorities.
We have already alluded to the neglect of the Guardians to deal with
more than an insignificant fraction of the children who are underfed.
The attempt made in 1905 to force them to fulfil their responsibility in
this respect was, as we have seen, a complete failure, and the duty was
therefore cast upon the Local Education Authorities. But even in the few
cases where the Guardians have assumed the responsibility by granting
out-relief to the family, the amount of this relief is, in the vast
majority of cases, totally inadequate. This was abundantly proved by the
Report of the Poor Law Commission in 1909. "The children," they
reported, "are undernourished, many of them poorly dressed and many
bare-footed ... the decent mother's one desire is to keep herself and
her children out of the work-house. She will, if allowed, try to do this
on an impossibly inadequate sum, until both she and her children become
mentally and physically deteriorated."[328] When the mother was careless
or neglectful no supervision was exercised by the Guardians to see that
even this inadequate amount was really spent on the children. This
indictment still holds good to-day. The inadequacy of the relief granted
by the Guardians, in all but a few exceptional Unions, has, in fact,
become a byword.
Footnote 328:
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of
Distress, 1909, 8vo edition, Vol. III. (Minority Report), p. 36.
In the great majority of towns, the Local Education Authority is
consequently driven to feed children whose parents are in receipt of
poor relief. Thus two authorities deal with the same case, without, in
many instances, either of them knowing what the other is doing.[329]
Only in a few cases has any attempt been made to prevent this
overlapping. For example, at Leicester (one of the few towns, we may
note, where liberal out-relief is granted by the Guardians) there has
from the first been co-operation between the Guardians and the Canteen
Committee.[330] The Relieving Officer refers to the Canteen Committee
many applications that are made to him where temporary help only is
needed, and the Committee has frequently tided families over a bad time
and saved them from recourse to the Poor Law. On the other hand, when a
family is receiving out-relief the Canteen Committee refuses to grant
food for the children. At Acton a similar policy has been adopted. If
parents who are in receipt of out-relief apply for school meals for
their children, the Secretary of the Education Committee recommends them
to apply to the Guardians for more relief, at the same time himself
writing to the Relieving Officer. As a rule the relief is increased in
consequence. Meanwhile the teachers are told to watch the children to
see that they do not suffer from want of food. At Dewsbury, also,
temporary cases are dealt with by the Canteen Committee, but all chronic
cases by the Guardians.[331]
Footnote 329:
Occasionally, as we have seen, the Guardians are represented on the
Canteen Committee, as at Crewe.
Footnote 330:
First Annual Report of the Leicester Children's Aid Association,
1907-8, p. 4.
Footnote 331:
Report of the School Medical Officer for Dewsbury for 1911, p. 41.
Elsewhere an attempt has been made to prevent overlapping by other
means. While the Education Authority undertakes to provide for all the
underfed children, an arrangement is made with the Guardians whereby
they repay the cost of the meals supplied for all children whose parents
are in receipt of relief. The relief is thus given partly in the form of
school meals, a plan strongly to be commended, since it ensures that the
relief given on account of the children is in fact obtained by them.
This plan has been for some years pursued at Bradford. At first there
appear to have been complaints that the Guardians were reducing the
relief granted, on account of the dinners supplied at school,[332] but
the dinners are now given in addition to the ordinary relief.[333] In
1912-13, the Guardians paid £303 to the Education Authority on this
account.[334] Even so, there is some slight overlapping, since the
Guardians only pay for dinners and in some cases the Canteen Committee
are of opinion that a second meal is needed, and consequently breakfasts
are granted and paid for by the Education Authority. A similar plan has
been adopted at Blackburn,[335] Huddersfield,[336] Brighton,[337] York
and Liverpool. In the last named town the arrangement has only recently
been made, and is in force in only two of the three Unions into which
the town is divided, West Derby and Liverpool. The Guardians have agreed
to issue coupons for school meals to children whose parents are in
receipt of out-relief, and will pay to the Education Authority 2d. per
meal. We were informed that, in the case of the West Derby Guardians at
any rate, these coupons would only be given to children whose mothers
were out all day. The relief would be reduced in consequence, though not
to the extent of the full value of the meal. The Guardians of the
Toxteth Union declined to make a similar arrangement, but suggested that
the Local Education Authority should inform them when they found
children underfed whose parents were in receipt of relief, and they
proposed in these cases to increase the relief.[338]
Footnote 332:
Bradford City Council Proceedings, June 16, 1908, p. 395; April 11,
1911, p. 305.
Footnote 333:
Thus the minimum relief for a widow is 4s., with 2s. each for the
first two children, and 1s. each for other children. In addition five
dinners a week, amounting in value to 1s. 0-1/2d., are given to all
children attending school. (Bradford Poor Law Union, Outdoor Relief
Arrangements.)
Footnote 334:
Bradford Education Committee, Return as to the Working of the
Provision of Meals Act for the year ending March 31, 1913.
Footnote 335:
Report of the School Medical Officer for Blackburn, 1911, p. 218. Out
of 59,537 meals given during the year, the Guardians paid for 17,786,
or nearly one-third.
Footnote 336:
Report of the Huddersfield Education Committee, 1911, p. 23.
Footnote 337:
Report of Brighton Education Committee for the year ending March 31,
1912, p. 28.
Footnote 338:
For the arrangements made between the Liverpool Education Committee
and the Guardians with regard to payment for children admitted as
voluntary cases to the Day Industrial Schools, see post, p. 118 n.
Other Local Education Authorities have tried this plan of communicating
with the Guardians, in the hope that they would grant adequate relief
for the needs of the children, but, finding no such result ensue, have
discontinued the practice. At Bury St. Edmunds, for instance, it was
found in the winter of 1907-8 that "a large percentage of the families
whose children were fed at school were in receipt of outdoor relief of
an amount which the Education Authority thought inadequate. The
attention of the Board of Guardians was called to the fact, but no steps
were taken by them."[339] The Education Committee accordingly continued
to feed the children, and we gather that now no communication is made by
them to the Guardians. Similarly at West Ham we were informed that the
Education Committee used to report cases to the Guardians, but the
practice proved useless and it has been given up, except for special
cases, where the Guardians will sometimes increase the relief given.
Footnote 339:
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of
Distress, 1909, 8vo edition, Vol. III. (Minority Report), p. 166 n.
In a few Unions, as at Leeds, the only result of the Guardians learning
that the children are receiving school meals--the need for which points
to the conclusion that the out-relief granted is inadequate--is that
they promptly reduce the relief, though not contributing to the Local
Education Authority anything towards the cost of the meals. They appear
to regard the provision of school meals merely as a means of reducing
the poor-rates, and casting the burden on other shoulders. Naturally in
such circumstances the Local Education Authority does not report cases
to the Guardians.
Any systematic arrangement between the two Authorities appears indeed to
be exceptional. As a rule there is practically no co-operation, beyond,
perhaps, the notification of cases by both authorities to some Mutual
Registration Society,[340] or the informal meetings of the Relieving
Officers and the School Attendance Officers.[341]
Footnote 340:
Thus at Manchester, the Education Committee and the Guardians send
lists of their cases to the District Provident Society, and the
Secretary lets each Authority know what the other is doing.
Footnote 341:
It is impossible to give any figures as to the overlapping that
exists, since the practice varies so much in different towns, and in
many cases no records are kept.
(h)--The Provision of Meals at Day Industrial Schools and Special
Schools.
We have already alluded to the power of the Local Education Authorities
to provide meals for the children attending the Day Industrial Schools
and the Special Schools for the mentally or physically defective. The
Day Industrial Schools are intended primarily for children who have
played truant from the ordinary schools and who are committed by a
magistrate's order. But in the case of widows or deserted wives who have
to work all day, or when the father is incapacitated from work by
illness or infirmity, or if the father is a widower, the children may be
admitted to a Day Industrial School, without an order, as "voluntary
cases."[342] When children are committed by a magistrate's order, the
parents are ordered to make a weekly payment towards the cost of
industrial training and meals.[343] In the case of children admitted
voluntarily such payment is also theoretically demanded,[344] but in
practice it is, as a rule, impossible to exact it. Thus at Liverpool,
though small payments are received from widowers, the condition as to
payment has to be waived in the case of widows and deserted wives, or
when the father is unable to work through illness.[345] At Bootle we
were informed that no payment is received from any of the voluntary
cases. The Schools are open from 6 or 7 in the morning to 5.30 or 6 at
night and three meals are provided. The dietary is as a rule monotonous,
being continued week after week with practically no variation. In point
of order, as might be expected, the service of the meals compares
favourably with those given to necessitous children, erring rather on
the side of over-much discipline. It is, unfortunately, by no means
uncommon to find absolute silence insisted on, a regulation which has a
most depressing effect. In these Day Industrial Schools the Local
Education Authorities have a valuable instrument for providing for the
numerous cases where mothers are at work all day and so cannot provide
proper meals for their children, or where the children are neglected.
This was urged by many witnesses before the Royal Commission on the Poor
Laws,[346] and again recently by the Departmental Committee on
Reformatory and Industrial Schools.[347] Very few authorities, however,
have taken advantage of this power. In 1911 there were only twelve Day
Industrial Schools in England, provided by eight authorities, and eight
in Scotland, of which seven were in Glasgow.[348] The total attendance
numbered a little over 3,000, the voluntary cases amounting to only
308.[349] These numbers showed a decrease compared with previous
years,[350] and this decline has since continued, partly owing to the
fact that truancy is far less common now than formerly, partly owing to
the provision of meals for children attending elementary schools, which
renders the Day Industrial Schools less necessary.[351]
Footnote 342:
Elementary Education Act, 1876 (39 and 40 Vic., c. 79), sec. 16 (4);
Children Act, 1908 (8 Edward VII., c. 67), sec. 79; "Day Industrial
Schools," by J. C. Legge, in _Proceedings of National Conference on
the Prevention of Destitution_, 1911, p. 360.
Footnote 343:
Children Act, 1908, sec. 82 (1).
Footnote 344:
_Ibid._, sec. 79.
Footnote 345:
"Day Industrial Schools," by J. C. Legge, in _Proceedings of National
Conference on the Prevention of Destitution_, 1911, p. 361. For many
years an arrangement has been in force by which the Liverpool Select
Vestry pay the Local Education Authority 9d. a week in respect of each
child in their area admitted as a voluntary scholar. (_Ibid._) A few
years ago the Guardians of the Toxteth Union agreed, in such cases,
where the parent was in receipt of outdoor relief, to increase the
relief by 6d. on condition that this was paid to the Education
Authority. (_Ibid._, p. 362.) The West Derby Guardians pay a lump sum
of £40 a year.
Footnote 346:
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1909. 8vo edition,
Vol. III., p. 165.
Footnote 347:
Report of the Departmental Committee on Reformatory and Industrial
Schools, 1913, p. 62.
Footnote 348:
Fifty-fifth Report on Reformatory and Industrial Schools, 1911, Part
I., pp. 28-30; Part II., p. 20. Two of the schools in England have
since been closed, and the school at Leeds is shortly to be given up.
Footnote 349:
_Ibid._, Part I., pp. 267-292; Part II., p. 20.
Footnote 350:
_Ibid._, Part II., p. 19.
Footnote 351:
Report of the Departmental Committee on Reformatory and Industrial
Schools, 1913, p. 62.
The arrangements made for providing for the mentally and physically
defective children vary in different towns. Sometimes no special
provision is made. At Leicester, for instance, the mentally defective
children who come from a distance bring their food with them and the
caretaker warms it. Frequently, however, a regular dinner is supplied.
Thus at Eastbourne dinners are provided at the Special School for dull
and backward children at a very small charge.[352] At Bradford some of
the children pay 1-1/2d. a meal, others receive it free. At Liverpool a
payment of 1s., 6d. or 3d. a week is demanded, according to the
circumstances, the meals being given free in special cases.[353] In
Birkenhead, too, the charge varies, some paying 1s. a week, some 2d. or
1d. per meal, at the discretion of the teacher; no meals are given free,
children who cannot pay being sent to the centre to have their dinner
with the necessitous children from the ordinary elementary schools.
There appears to be usually little difficulty in collecting payment. At
Birkenhead we were told that some difficulty was experienced at first,
but the children appreciate the dinners so much now that they beg their
parents to give them the necessary pence.
Footnote 352:
Report of School Medical Officer for Eastbourne for 1912, p. 46.
Footnote 353:
The majority pay about 6d. a week. In the case of physically defective
children the parent's payment is intended to meet the expenses of
dinner, any medicines or dressings that may be necessary, and the cost
of conveyance. It does not, of course, nearly cover these charges.
At the Open Air Schools[354] the common meal always forms part of the
regular school routine. As a rule three meals a day are provided,[355]
and sometimes milk is given in addition in the middle of the morning.
Usually some charge is made towards the cost of the meals, varying from
6d. to 3s. per week, according to the parents' circumstances, but in
necessitous cases the charge is remitted.[356]
Footnote 354:
In 1911 there were only nine Open Air Schools, maintained by eight
authorities. (Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of
Education for 1911, p. 215.)
Footnote 355:
At Darlington only a mid-day meal is provided.
Footnote 356:
At Norwich the charge varies from 6d. to 1s. 6d.; at Sheffield, from
6d. to 2s. 6d.; at Halifax it may amount to 3s. At Barnsley all the
parents are charged 2s. 6d. per week, no children being admitted
without payment. At Bradford the meals are given free to all.
The service of the meals at these Special Schools presents in general a
marked contrast to the methods prevailing at the centres for necessitous
children. For example, at Birkenhead, where the management of the
feeding centres leaves much to be desired,[357] the dinner provided at
the Mentally Defective School, for all children who care to stay, is
served in an attractive and educational manner. One or more teachers are
always present to supervise it. The children enter all together and sit
down at small tables. The boys and girls take it in turns to lay the
tables and clear away afterwards, and help to serve the food.
Table-cloths are provided and these are kept remarkably clean. Somewhat
similar conditions prevail at Liverpool in the Special Schools for
Physically and Mentally Defective Children.[358] But it is at a school
for feeble-minded children at Bradford that we found the most perfect
arrangements. The smallness of the numbers--only some 17 or 18 children
being present--allowed attention to be paid to each individual child.
The dinner was served in a bright cheerful hall, and the tables were
nicely laid by the children, with table-cloths, plants and flowers;
these latter the children often bring themselves. Two teachers are
always present and preside at the two tables, having their dinner with
the children. The children's manners were excellent and spoke volumes
for the patience and care exercised by the teachers.
Footnote 357:
See ante, pp. 95-6.
Footnote 358:
At one of these schools, the mentally defective children were having
their dinner in one room, the physically defective in an adjoining
room. All the children stay for the meal. The headmistress supervised,
assisted by a teacher for the mentally defective, and the school nurse
for the physically defective children. Tablecloths were provided for
the latter, but not for the former. The dinner was cooked by the
children who had been attending the cookery class in the morning; the
children laid the tables, and monitors helped to serve the food.
The example afforded by the service of the meals at these special
schools might well be imitated by the Education Authorities in providing
meals at the ordinary elementary schools.
(i)--The Underfed Child in Rural Schools.
We have confined our investigations almost entirely to the Urban
Districts. We must, however, briefly touch upon the question of
underfeeding in the country. Here the conditions are different. The
problem is not only how to provide for the children who do not get
sufficient to eat; there are also to be considered the large numbers who
are unable to return home at midday and have to bring their dinner to
school with them. Many of these children have to walk long distances,
perhaps two miles, three miles, or even more. The long walk necessitates
an early start from home; this makes the interval between breakfast and
dinner long and the exercise sharpens the appetite. Hence it is of the
greatest importance that the midday meal should be adequate. In most
cases, however, as the reports of School Medical Officers abundantly
testify, the dinner which these children bring with them consists of
bread and jam, cake or pastry, with perhaps a bottle of cold tea.[359]
In a few schools the teachers have organised cocoa clubs, the children
paying 1d. or 1-1/2d. per week, which is as a rule just sufficient to
cover expenses.[360] Incidentally, it is noticed, the weekly payment for
cocoa has a good effect on the attendance. "A child having once paid his
or her cocoa fee at the beginning of the week seldom stays away from
school during the remainder of the week if it can possibly be
avoided."[361]
Footnote 359:
In East Sussex, for instance, where particulars were supplied by the
teachers as to the meals brought by eleven of the children, it was
found that the food was totally inadequate, in most cases consisting
of bread and butter, or cake, with perhaps a small piece of cheese or
an apple. Two children of five years old, who had to walk two miles to
school, brought, one of them bread and butter only, the other cake.
Three children, who had to walk three and a half miles, brought either
cake or only bread. ("The Diet of Elementary School Children in
Country Districts," by Dr. George Finch, in _Rearing an Imperial
Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht, 1913, p. 29.) In a Bedfordshire school
out of 62 children who brought their dinner to school with them, one
had an apple tart, three had bread and cheese, while 58 had "bread
with a thin layer of butter or lard on it, or else bread and jam, or
bread and syrup. This meal was washed down with water, as nothing hot
was obtainable." ("How the Family of the Agricultural Labourer Lives,"
by Ronald T. Herdman, reprinted in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, p.
341.)
Footnote 360:
Thus at Brynconin, where 85 children are supplied daily with cocoa for
a weekly charge of 1d., the week's expenditure on cocoa, sugar and
milk amounts to 6s. 6d., and the children's payments to 6s. 10d.
(Report of the School Medical Officer for Pembrokeshire for 1912, p.
14.) See also Reports of the School Medical Officer for Hampshire
(1910), p. 25; for the Isle of Ely (1910), p. 18; for Gloucestershire
(1910), p. 53; for East Suffolk (1910), p. 19; for West Sussex (1911),
p. 10. Sometimes the cocoa is provided free through the generosity of
the teachers. (See Report of Monmouthshire Education Committee on the
Medical Inspection Department for 1910, p. 9.)
Footnote 361:
Report of the School Medical Officer for Hampshire for 1910, p. 25.
Sometimes the teacher encourages the children to bring bottles of milk,
cocoa or coffee and sees that they are warmed over the fire before being
partaken of.
Occasionally a regular dinner is provided. We have already mentioned the
experiment made at Rousdon by Sir Henry Peek in 1876. This has been
continued to the present day. A hot dinner is provided daily, consisting
of one course, soup with bread and vegetables two days a week, and some
form of suet pudding the other three days. About half the children stay
for the dinner and pay one penny each, these payments just about
covering the cost of the food. The meal is served in a dining-room in
the school and the ex-headmaster and the present headmaster voluntarily
undertake the supervision.
A somewhat similar plan has been tried at Grassington, in Yorkshire.
When, eighteen years ago, the teaching of cookery was introduced, it was
resolved to combine with that instruction the provision of a hot midday
meal. The children not only cook the dinner themselves, but they take it
in turns to order and pay for the materials, thus acquiring the valuable
knowledge how to buy. They are taught the value of the different
foodstuffs and learn how to make a good substantial dinner at a little
cost. A two-course dinner, ample and varied, is provided daily at the
school.[362] Each child is allowed to eat as much as it wants, but no
waste is allowed. Marvellous as it appears, the payment of a 1d. per
meal covers the cost of the food.[363] The dinner appears to have been
intended chiefly for the children who came from a distance, but the
parents of the children who live in the village have been glad to avail
themselves of the provision, since the school dinner is better than they
can supply at home.[364] Nearly half the children stay. All the
arrangements are, and have from the first been, made by the headmaster's
wife, who takes the cookery lesson and serves the meal herself, and the
success of the experiment must be very largely attributed to her
voluntary labours.
Footnote 362:
For sample menus, see Appendix I., p. 236.
Footnote 363:
For instance, the cost of the food for the dinners for twelve weeks
amounted to £7 9s. 8d., and the children's payments to £7 9s. 5d. On
cold snowy mornings hot cocoa is provided before morning school for
all the children. The cost of this is, we gather, borne entirely by
the headmaster and his wife.
Footnote 364:
_Yorkshire Post_, July 9, 1908.
In two schools in Cheshire also, Siddington and Nether Alderley, hot
dinners are provided at a charge of 1-1/2d., in the former during the
winter months, in the latter all the year round. In both cases the
children's payments cover, or slightly more than cover, the cost of the
food, the other expenses being borne by voluntary funds.
Such provision is, however, quite exceptional. As a rule no provision
whatever is made. "I have only once seen any supervision of the meal on
the part of the teachers," writes a late Assistant School Medical
Officer for East Sussex; "in fine weather the children generally eat
[their dinner] out of doors; in bad weather it is taken in the school or
cloak-room in what are often very unhygienic surroundings."[365] "There
is no doubt," writes another School Medical Officer, "that at some of
the schools the conditions in which the children get their midday meal
are deplorable."[366] "It is only too common a sight," reports the
School Medical Officer for Derbyshire, "to see little children sitting
in a corner of the class-room, cloak-room or even the playground,
munching at thick slices of bread and butter. Under these
circumstances," he continues, "it cannot be wondered at that children
below the normal development are to be found in our schools."[367] In
Anglesey the School Medical Officer finds more children badly nourished
in the rural areas than in the urban areas; this he attributes mainly to
the long walk to school every day, the inadequacy of the midday meal and
the hurried manner in which it is eaten.[368]
Footnote 365:
"The Diet of Elementary School Children in Country Districts," by Dr.
George Finch, in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht,
1913, p. 109.
Footnote 366:
Report of the School Medical Officer for Hampshire, 1910, p. 24.
Footnote 367:
Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for
1911, p. 284.
Footnote 368:
_Ibid._, pp. 283-4.
It is indeed essential that in all country schools to which children
come from a distance, provision should be made for the serving of a
midday meal under proper supervision.[369] As Dr. George Finch points
out, "the authority which requires the child to spend its day away from
home might not unreasonably be expected by the parents to make some
provision that its midday meal might be taken under not unfavourable
conditions. The parent, however conscientious, cannot adequately deal
with the problem, and the provision of suitable cold food is not an easy
matter, even in the more well-to-do family."[370] The meals should be
served as part of the school curriculum and might well be combined with
the teaching of cookery as is done at Grassington.
Footnote 369:
As we have seen, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical
Inspection and Feeding in 1905 recommended that managers of country
schools should arrange, during the winter at any rate, to provide
either a hot dinner or soup or cocoa for children who lived too far
away to go home at mid-day. (See ante, p. 38.)
Footnote 370:
"The Diet of Elementary School Children in Country Districts," by Dr.
George Finch, in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht,
1913, p. 109.
Conclusions.
It may be useful now to sum up the main points which emerge from the
foregoing description. The proposal, which we shall discuss in the final
chapter, to make the midday meal a part of the school curriculum, to be
attended by all children who wish to avail themselves of the provision,
would obviate many of the difficulties that arise under the present
system. Meanwhile we may point out some ways in which improvements can
be effected, apart from this more drastic proposal.
1. Since the Provision of Meals Act is only permissive, Local Education
Authorities are allowed to remain inactive in spite of the fact that
children in their schools are underfed, and that no adequate provision
is made by voluntary agencies. It should be made obligatory on the Local
Authority to take action in such a case.
2. The limitation of the amount which may be spent on food by the Local
Education Authority to the sum yielded by a halfpenny rate restricts
operations in some towns, and prevents provision being made for all the
necessitous children. This limitation should be removed.
An alteration of the law in these two directions would merely assimilate
the powers and duties of the English Education Authorities to those
already conferred on the Scottish School Boards by the Education
(Scotland) Act of 1908.[371]
Footnote 371:
See post, pp. 237-8.
3. The selection of the children who are to receive school meals is
based, often solely and always primarily, on the poverty test. Little
attempt is made to link up the provision of meals with the school
medical service. The meals, that is to say, are regarded primarily as a
means of relieving distress rather than as a remedy for malnutrition.
The numbers selected vary according to the policy of the Local Education
Authority and the views taken by the individual head teachers. Nowhere
can the selection of the children be said to be satisfactory. In towns
such as Bradford, where the Local Authority is determined to search out
all cases of children who are suffering from lack of food, the great
majority of underfed children are doubtless discovered, but in other
towns numbers of such children are overlooked and left unprovided for,
while everywhere little or no provision is made for the countless
children who are improperly fed at home. We shall discuss in the final
chapter the best method to be pursued in this matter of selecting the
children.
4. There is great diversity of practice in different towns with regard
to the time at which the meal is given, the manner in which it is
prepared and served, and the kind of food supplied. Where only one meal
is provided, it would appear that dinner is for many reasons preferable
to breakfast. The dietary should be varied and should be drawn up in
consultation with the School Medical Officer; it should be so planned as
to contain a due proportion of the elements which are lacking in the
child's home diet, and special provision should be made for the infants.
The preparation of the meals should not be left to caterers but should
be undertaken by the Local Authority, so that adherence to the approved
dietary and a high standard of quality can be assured. The meal should
be regarded as part of the school curriculum. It should be served as far
as possible on the school premises, and should be attended only by
children from that particular school. The children should be taught to
set the tables and wait on one another, the tables being nicely laid,
with table-cloths and, if possible, flowers or plants. Clean hands and
faces and orderly behaviour should be insisted on. Some of the teachers
should supervise the meal and should receive some extra remuneration for
this service.
5. The discontinuance of the school meals during the holidays has been
shown to undo much of the benefit derived during term-time, and it
entails unnecessary suffering on the children. The expenditure of the
rates on holiday feeding must be legalised. The limitation of the
provision to the winter months, as is the practice in some towns, is
even more absurd. Local Authorities should be required to continue the
school meals throughout the year, if need exists.
6. The sums contributed by the parents towards the cost of their
children's meals amount to only a trifling fraction of the total
expenditure. The power of providing meals as a matter of convenience for
children whose parents are able and willing to pay has been very
sparingly used by the Local Education Authorities, as far as the
ordinary elementary schools are concerned. In the special schools for
defective children, on the other hand, where not infrequently a midday
meal is provided for all the children, a considerable proportion of the
parents contribute towards the cost. It is difficult to say whether the
establishment of School Restaurants in the ordinary schools would be
successful. One point, however, seems clear; if the plan is to succeed,
the meals must be intended primarily for paying children; if they are
provided mainly for necessitous children, parents who can afford to pay
will not send their children to any great extent.
In the case of the parents who can afford to feed their children but
neglect to do so, the attempt to recover the cost of the meals supplied
to the children results as a rule in almost total failure, owing to the
extreme difficulty of obtaining conclusive evidence of the parents'
ability to pay. An attempt to recover may be worse than useless, for it
frequently leads the parent to withdraw his children promptly from the
school meals, though their need of the meals continues as great as
before.
7. Owing to the inadequate relief usually given by the Boards of
Guardians, the Local Education Authorities are in many cases forced to
feed children whose parents are receiving poor relief. In only a few
towns is any systematic attempt made to prevent this overlapping between
the two authorities. So long as the Guardians retain their present
functions, the plan adopted at Bradford and a few other towns, by which
the out-relief granted by the Guardians is given partly in the form of
school meals, the Guardians paying the Education Authority for these
meals, might well be extended to other towns. By this plan overlapping
of relief is avoided, while it ensures that the relief given to the
mother on account of her children is in effect obtained by them.
8. In the rural districts the conditions under which the children eat
their midday meal are frequently deplorable. The long walk to school
renders it even more important than it is in the towns that the meal
should be a substantial one, but the food which the children bring with
them is as a rule entirely inadequate. In the few schools where a hot
dinner has been provided, the plan has met with marked success, and such
provision should be made in all schools. It might advantageously be
combined with the teaching of cookery, a plan which is more practicable
in the country than in the towns, since the numbers to be provided for
are comparatively small.
CHAPTER III
THE PROVISION OF MEALS IN LONDON
We have reserved the treatment of London for a separate chapter since,
owing to its size and the diverse conditions prevailing in the different
districts, it presents problems of special difficulty. We shall describe
in this chapter the provision made in the early years of this century by
voluntary agencies, and the final assumption by the London County
Council of the whole responsibility of dealing with its underfed
children; we shall trace the gradual building up of a vast and complex
organisation to deal not only with the question of school meals, but
also with other matters affecting the general welfare of the children;
and we shall discuss the actual methods of working at the present day.
(a)--The Organisation of the Voluntary Agencies.
We have already sketched the early history of the movement in London,
and described the attempts made by the London School Board to organise
the host of voluntary agencies.[372] The proposal put forward by a
Committee of the School Board in 1899 to make that body responsible for
providing food for all its underfed children was, as we have shown,
defeated by a large majority, and a renewed attempt was made by the
establishment of a central organisation, the Joint Committee on Underfed
Children, to organise the voluntary agencies.
Footnote 372:
See ante, pp. 16-27.
This attempt met with but little more success than the earlier
endeavours. The functions of the Joint Committee were limited to
receiving reports from the Relief Committees, pointing out defects in
their methods of working, and acting generally as a medium of
communication between these committees and the collecting agencies. If
the Relief Committees failed to send reports, the Joint Committee had no
power to compel them to do so, nor could the Committee insist on the
remedying of the defects which they pointed out. By 1907 the Committee
were able to report that only one school had been discovered in which
meals were provided but no report received. "We may hope, therefore,"
they continue, "that ... the instructions of the Council ... have at
last reached all head teachers and are being obeyed. But in default of
any executive and inspecting machinery, it has taken the persistent
efforts of the Joint Committee, during six years, to effect this result,
if indeed it has really been effected."[373] The greatest difficulty was
experienced in getting Relief Committees established in every school or
group of schools in which underfed children were provided with
meals.[374] Even when these committees were appointed, the meetings of
many of them were held infrequently and for formal business only, the
selection of the children and the enquiry into the parents'
circumstances being left entirely to the teachers.[375] Consequently the
methods of selection differed widely, even in the same school, the
different departments paying no attention to what the others were
doing.[376] The enquiry was generally totally inadequate, and in some
cases was not even attempted.[377] The Joint Committee urged that, when
meals were given at all, they should be given regularly at least four if
not five days a week, and should be continued throughout the year if
necessary.[378] But in 1907 we find that "there are still a good many
schools where meals are only provided on one or two days, and more where
they are only given on three days, the average number throughout the
schools being 2-3/4 meals per child per week."[379] In only sixteen
schools were the meals continued for more than twenty weeks during the
year.[380]
Footnote 373:
Report of the Joint Committee on Underfed Children, for 1906-7, p. 2.
Footnote 374:
Fourth Annual Report of the Joint Committee on Underfed Children,
1904, pp. 1-2; Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical
Inspection and Feeding, 1905, Qs. 1649, 1650 (evidence of Mr. T. E.
Harvey). Even in 1908 there were 74 schools at which feeding took
place which had not a properly constituted committee. (London County
Council, Report by Executive Officer (Education), Appendix A to agenda
of Sub-Committee on Underfed Children, July 6, 1908.)
Footnote 375:
"There is supposed to be a committee in every school," said one
headmaster, "but the committees never meet in the vast majority of
cases, and if they do, they never undertake personal investigation."
(Report of the Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals)
Bills (England and Scotland), 1906, Q. 849, evidence of Mr. Marshall
Jackman.) "There is [a Relief Committee] in accordance with the
rules," declared another headmaster, but "the Committee acts really
through the head teachers.... The Committee say that the teachers have
their confidence, and they could not do any good by attempting
themselves to help as a committee, and therefore they do not help."
(Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and
Feeding, 1905, Q. 5149 (evidence of Mr. T. P. Shovelier.) See also
_Ibid._, Qs. 4773 A, 4937-4939, 6233, 6265.
Footnote 376:
See, for instance, Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical
Inspection and Feeding, 1905, Qs. 185, 5154.
Footnote 377:
"The duty of making enquiries by the managers, or by outsiders working
for them, into the home conditions of the children is, with some
remarkable exceptions, seldom well done, and often not done at all.
They are authorised to invite assistance from attendance officers, ...
from Charity Organisation Society visitors, district visitors, country
holiday fund visitors, and similar persons, but we have very seldom
found that this class of person has been consulted." (Report of the
Joint Committee on Underfed Children for 1906-7, p. 23.)
Footnote 378:
_Ibid._ for 1904-5, p. 5.
Footnote 379:
_Ibid._ for 1906-7, Appendix G., p. 23.
Footnote 380:
_Ibid._, p. 2.
The Joint Committee strenuously opposed the theory, which was now
steadily gaining ground, that the rates should be utilised for the
supply of food. In 1904 they report that, in their opinion, "all real
distress on any considerable scale has been effectually met.... They
have never been restricted in their efforts for want of funds, and there
is no reason to think that any organisations dealing with public money
would be more efficient than these bodies dealing with charitable money.
On the other hand, there is reason to believe that, even as things are
now, relief is often given to children who are not really in want, and
there is no doubt that if the public purse were being drawn upon, relief
would be distributed more lavishly."[381] The County Council could
hardly, however, remain unmoved by the disquieting report of the
Committee on Physical Deterioration published in the same year. Dr.
Eichholz, in his evidence before the committee, had indeed described the
existing method of feeding in London as "entirely in the nature of a
temporary stop-gap. There is," he declared, "but little concentrated
effort at building up enfeebled constitutions, school feeding doing
little beyond arresting further degeneracy."[382] In April, 1905, the
Council accordingly resolved "that, with a view to checking the physical
deterioration among the London population and securing the best result
from the expenditure on education, it be referred to the Education
Committee to consider and report as to the necessary Parliamentary power
being obtained for the provision of food where necessary for the
children attending rate-supported schools in London."[383] The Education
Committee, however, while admitting that there were numbers of underfed
and ill-fed children attending the schools and that in the case of these
children it was impossible to secure the best results from an
educational standpoint, were nevertheless of opinion that, "while the
necessity for feeding children as the last resort out of public funds is
a proposition endorsed by the whole spirit of the Poor Law," there were
strong arguments against seeking power to utilise the rates at present.
The provision of school meals out of public funds must tend to lessen
parental responsibility, and the expense entailed would be very serious,
since the numbers, though small at first, would inevitably tend to
increase.[384] The Committee recommended, therefore, that the experiment
should be tried of utilising the food prepared at the cookery centres.
The advantages of this course would be twofold. The experiment would
prove whether there was a demand on the part of the better-off parents
for the provision of cheap dinners at school, while the training at the
cookery centres would be improved by receiving a more practical
trend.[385]
Footnote 381:
Fourth Annual Report of the Joint Committee on Underfed Children,
1904, p. 2. Evidence was given before the Inter-Departmental Committee
on Medical Inspection and Feeding in 1905, which showed that
difficulty was experienced in collecting sufficient funds. The London
Schools Dinner Association found that people would contribute at
Christmas time, but in the early spring, when the work was heaviest,
the subscriptions ceased. (Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee
on Medical Inspection and Feeding, 1905, Qs. 2074, 2081-2083.) See
also evidence of Mr. Marshall Jackman before the Select Committee on
the Education (Provision of Meals) Bills (England and Scotland), 1906,
Qs. 780, 788-790.
Footnote 382:
Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration,
1904, Q. 477.
Footnote 383:
Minutes of the London County Council, April 11, 1905, p. 1381.
Footnote 384:
_Ibid._, July 11, 1905, p. 297.
Footnote 385:
_Ibid._, p. 298.
The experiment was accordingly tried at five[386] selected schools. In
three of these schools, which were situated in poor districts, dinners
were supplied at 1-1/2d each. In the other two schools, situated in
better-class neighbourhoods, the cost was 2d. and 3d., the parents
preferring the more expensive dinner.[387] The Council having no power
to spend the rates on the provision of food, the meals had to be paid
for by the parents or by charitable agencies. The teachers were
instructed not to choose only necessitous children, but to distribute
the tickets fairly between the children in the schools, the object being
to try the experiment of a common dinner.[388] From an educational point
of view the dinners were very successful. The children were taught to
eat properly,[389] and the girls attending the cookery class benefited
by the practical training. It appeared, too, that there was a demand, in
certain districts at any rate, for the provision of cheap dinners at
school.[390] But the experiment was on too small a scale to have much
practical bearing on the question of feeding necessitous children. For
large numbers the cookery centres were quite inadequate and any attempt
to use them primarily for the object of providing children's meals would
interfere with the instruction given.
Footnote 386:
The experiment was later extended to fifteen schools.
Footnote 387:
Report of the Select Committee on the Education (Provision of Meals)
Bills, 1906, Qs. 451, 500, evidence of Mr. A. J. Shepheard.
Footnote 388:
_Ibid._, Q. 327.
Footnote 389:
The tables were "nicely laid and with tablecloths, with all the
ordinary appliances and requirements of a table put there, such as
salt cellars, knives and forks, and everything of that kind. The
tables were laid out with flowers ... I think I may quite certainly
say that some of these children had never sat down to a meal of that
description in their lives." (_Ibid._, Q. 331.)
Footnote 390:
Minutes of the London County Council, December 19, 1905, p. 2138.
About eighty per cent. of the meals were paid for by the parents, the
remaining twenty per cent. being paid for by friends or voluntary
agencies. (Report of the Select Committee on the Education (Provision
of Meals) Bills, 1906, Q. 326.)
(b)--The Assumption of Responsibility by the County Council.
No further serious attempt was made for some years to place the
provision of food upon the rates. On the passing of the Provision of
Meals Act the County Council took over the whole responsibility for the
provision, the Joint Committee on Underfed Children, which had been
composed partly of representatives of voluntary organisations,[391]
giving place to a Sub-Committee of the Education Committee[392]; but
voluntary funds were still relied on. In 1908, however, the supply began
to fail. In July of that year a conference of the Mayors of the London
boroughs had declared that there was no reason to fear that voluntary
contributions would be insufficient to defray the cost of food.[393] The
appeal subsequently issued met, however, with a very meagre response,
only some £6,000 being subscribed.[394] By the end of the year it became
clear that recourse must be had to the rates, and application was
accordingly made to the Board of Education. The new system was put in
force early in 1909.[395]
Footnote 391:
When, in 1904, the London School Board was superseded by the London
County Council, the Joint Committee on Underfed Children had been
continued by the latter body, its constitution remaining practically
unaltered. (London County Council, Report of Education Committee,
1908-9, Part II., p. 3.)
Footnote 392:
This Sub-Committee was known at first as the Sub-Committee on Underfed
Children. In December, 1908, the name was altered to the Children's
Care (Central) Sub-Committee. (_Ibid._, p. 4.)
Footnote 393:
See Minutes of the London County Council, November 24, 1908, p. 1120.
Footnote 394:
"State Feeding of School Children in London," by Sir Charles Elliott,
in _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1909, p. 866.
Footnote 395:
London County Council, Report of the Education Committee for 1908-9,
Part II., p. 4.
Meanwhile the constant complaints of the varying methods pursued by the
different Care Committees[396] in the selection of the children, and the
rapid increase in the number of children fed,[397] led the Sub-Committee
on Underfed Children to call for a report on the circumstances of these
children, so that the cause of the distress might be ascertained and
some light thrown on the question how far the provision of free meals
was really an effective remedy for the evils which existed.[398] An
investigation was accordingly conducted by the two officials who had
been appointed by the Council to organise the work of the local Care
Committees. Twelve schools were selected in different districts, and a
careful enquiry made into the circumstances of all the children at these
schools who were receiving free meals. In all 1,218 families were dealt
with, containing 3,334 children.
Footnote 396:
The local Relief Committees had been re-organised under the name of
Children's Care Committees in July, 1907. (_Ibid._)
Footnote 397:
The numbers greatly increased during the winter of 1907-8, and reached
a maximum of 49,043 in March, 1908. (London County Council, Report on
the Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in twelve selected
schools, 1908, p. 2.)
Footnote 398:
_Ibid._
In a small number of the cases, 3·9 per cent., the distress was found to
be due to illness or some other temporary misfortune; unemployment of
the wage-earner accounted for 5·7 per cent., and under-employment for 19
per cent., of the cases; in 44·7 per cent. the cause of the distress was
attributed to the intemperance or wastefulness of the parents.[399] The
necessity of providing school meals, at any rate as a temporary
expedient, was clearly proved. It was found that, though 21·12 per cent.
of the children were not necessitous, the remaining 78·88 per cent. were
necessitous "in the sense of lacking sufficient food," and that they
would require school meals "until effective Care Committees are able to
check the diseases attendant on partial employment, bad housing and
other evils."[400] So far little attempt had been made to improve the
conditions of the homes by systematic visiting. With the majority of the
Care Committees, declared the organisers, "their only active members are
the head teachers and their only visitors are the attendance
officers."[401] The complaints as to want of uniformity in the selection
of the children were corroborated. In many schools "each department has
its own system of enquiry, its own method of selection, its own standard
of necessity, and the result is that it is seldom that all the school
children of one family are on the necessitous list."[402] The extent of
overlapping between the Education Authority and the Boards of Guardians
was shown by the fact that out of the 1,218 families 39 were in receipt
of out-relief while no fewer than 165 had been in receipt of relief
recently.[403]
Footnote 399:
_Ibid._, pp. 7-8, 22.
Footnote 400:
_Ibid._, p. 24.
Footnote 401:
_Ibid._, p. 25.
Footnote 402:
_Ibid._, p. 25. See also the description of the methods employed at
typical schools. (_Ibid._, pp. 19, 20.)
Footnote 403:
_Ibid._, p. 22.
To put an end to all this want of uniformity it was recommended that a
responsible secretary visitor should be appointed for each school or
group of schools, who would organise bands of voluntary workers, and
co-operate with all existing local agencies for social improvement. It
was urged that the duties of the Care Committees should not be confined
to the provision of meals, but should include everything pertaining to
the health and general well-being of the child.[404] This latter
recommendation was carried out. The Care Committees were re-organised
and given additional duties, the supervision of medical treatment and
the work of after-care,[405] and it was resolved that a committee should
be appointed for every elementary school, not only for those which
contained "necessitous" children.[406] The suggestion that a paid
secretary should be appointed for every school or group of schools was
not adopted. The Council decided merely to appoint twelve paid lady
workers for the whole of London, whose duties would be to strengthen the
Care Committees. At the same time, as a further step towards uniformity,
local associations of Care Committees were formed. Several such
associations had already come into existence voluntarily, but they were
now made uniform and permanent. The functions of these associations,
which numbered 27, were to make all the arrangements in connection with
the feeding centres, and to collect voluntary contributions. They were
also to act as advisory bodies. At their meetings would be discussed
such questions as the selection of children to be fed, after-care,
medical treatment, and any other duties falling to the Care Committees
to be performed. They would thus, it was hoped, initiate a common policy
and serve as a means of co-ordinating the work of the various Care
Committees. Two-thirds of their members were to be representatives of
Care Committees, one-sixth were to be nominated by the Teachers' Local
Consultative Committees, and one-sixth appointed by the Children's Care
(Central) Sub-Committee.[407]
Footnote 404:
_Ibid._, p. 27.
Footnote 405:
A few Care Committees were already carrying out these functions. See,
for instance, the description of the methods adopted at one school
(_Ibid._, p. 19, No. C.)
Footnote 406:
Minutes of the London County Council, April 6, 1909, pp. 855-6.
Footnote 407:
Minutes of the London County Council, April 6, 1909, pp. 856, 857;
Handbook containing general information with reference to Children's
Care, 1912, pp. 7-8, 88.
There are thus to-day three distinct, though interdependent,
organisations--the Children's Care (Central) Sub-Committee, the Local
Associations of Care Committees and the local Care Committees appointed
for each school.
In considering the development in London of the movement for the
provision of meals, one is struck by the haphazard way in which the vast
organisation has been built up. The County Council has from the first
been reluctant to undertake the responsibility for its underfed
children. "The whole question of deciding which children are underfed,
and of making special provision for such children," declared the
Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Underfed Children in 1908, "should
really be one for the Poor Law Authority to decide, and not the
Education Authority."[408] The attempt to make the Guardians carry out
their duty having signally failed, the London County Council was forced
to undertake the task, but it has done so in a half-hearted fashion. The
results of this failure to grasp the problem in a statesmanlike manner
are conspicuously evident in the conditions prevailing to-day.
Footnote 408:
Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in twelve
selected schools, 1908, p. 3.
(c)--The Extent of the Provision.
The total expenditure on the provision of meals in London amounted, for
the year 1912-13, to £99,805. Of this by far the greater part, £98,111,
was derived from the rates, voluntary contributions amounting to only
£3. Apart from these voluntary contributions collected by the Local
Associations, however, a few schools "contract out" and supply the meals
from their own private sources.[409] Moreover, large sums were collected
by voluntary organisations for the provision of meals during the
holidays, especially during the summer holiday of 1912, owing to the
distress caused by the dock strike. And besides this holiday feeding,
which, since it cannot be met out of the rates, must be paid for out of
voluntary funds, there are still a certain number of voluntary agencies
which are providing meals quite independently of the County Council.
Footnote 409:
Thus at St. Giles'-in-the-Fields the expenditure on the provision of
food is still met from voluntary funds. At Hampstead, in all the
schools except one or two, the provision of food for necessitous
children is paid for by the Hampstead Council of Social Welfare. The
Care Committee refers to the Council of Social Welfare cases which are
suitable for home relief, _i.e._, cases where the mother can be
trusted to look after the children at home; in these cases adequate
relief for the whole family is given by the Council. If the mother
cannot be trusted or if she goes out to work all day, the children
receive meals at the feeding centre, the Council paying for these
meals.
Amongst the most important of these is the London Vegetarian
Association. One of the chief objects of this Association, which has
been in existence many years, is the popularisation in the homes of the
poor of a vegetable diet which is at once both cheap and wholesome.
Dinners are provided consisting of a bowl of vegetable soup, a slice of
wholemeal bread and a slab of pudding. As a rule the meals are given
during the winter only, being continued during the Christmas holidays
and, if necessary, during the Easter holidays, and on Saturdays also.
The number of centres opened varies according to the state of the
Association's finances and the need that exists. During the present
winter some half-dozen have been established, besides the central depôt
in Whitechapel, about 900 children on an average being fed daily. Since
the passing of the Provision of Meals Act the activities of the
Association, as far as the children are concerned, have been confined
theoretically to the supply of dinners to children under school age or
to children who wish to pay for the meals. But school children who
prefer to be fed by the Association rather than by the school are also
given meals, as in addition are those who are not considered necessitous
by the School Care Committee. Any child can have a dinner on producing a
halfpenny. Free dinners are only given to children for whom application
is made by some charitable agency, district visitors, Little Sisters of
the Poor or other persons interested, no enquiry being made by the
Association itself in these cases. It is clear that there is much danger
of overlapping--in fact it has been found that, in some cases, children
have obtained a dinner at school first and have then gone on to the
depôt. In other cases it seems that the Association feeds some children
of a family, the Care Committee others.
The total number of individual children fed during the year 1912-13 was
100,771,[410] the average weekly number being 41,529. The numbers fed
during the last thirteen years are seen in the following table:--[411]
Season. Average weekly
number of
children fed.
1900-01 (August to July inclusive) 18,857
1901-02 " " 20,085
1902-03 " " 22,206
1903-04 " " 23,842
1904-05 " " 26,951
1905-06 " " 27,159
1906-07 " " 29,334
1907-08 " " 37,979
1908-09 " " 39,632
1909-10 (August 1 to March 31) 42,153
1910-11 (April 1 to March 31) 41,672
1911-12 36,897
1912-13 41,529
Footnote 410:
These are necessitous children only. This number includes the
necessitous children in the Defective Schools, except the Cripple
Schools, where the meals are provided by the Cripple Children's
Dinners Committee. (See post, pp. 155-6.)
Footnote 411:
Annual Report of London County Council for 1911, Vol. IV., p. 33. The
figures for the earlier years are not reliable owing to the
multiplicity of agencies providing food.
(d)--The Care Committee.
In the selection of the children the County Council has throughout
pursued the policy of keeping the numbers fed as low as possible. The
School Doctor may recommend for meals, or more frequently for milk or
codliver oil, under-nourished children whom he discovers in the course
of medical inspection,[412] but the number of such cases is
comparatively small. As a rule the children are selected by the teachers
(either on their own initiative or, more frequently, on the application
of the parents) on the ground of poverty.
Footnote 412:
The teachers are asked to point out to the school doctor any children
about to be inspected whose names are on the necessitous register.
(London County Council, Handbook containing general information with
reference to Children's Care, 1912, p. 18.)
The enquiry into the home circumstances of these children and the final
decision as to which of them shall be fed, devolve upon the Care
Committees. These Care Committees form the most striking feature of the
administration of the Provision of Meals Act in London. In no other town
have the services of the volunteer worker been utilised to such an
extent.[413] As we have seen, the County Council decided in 1909 that a
Children's Care Committee should be formed for every elementary school,
and there is now practically no school for which a committee has not
been appointed.[414] The committees consist of two or three of the
School Managers, together with not less than four voluntary workers
appointed by the Children's Care (Central) Sub-Committee.[415] The head
teachers, though not members,[416] usually attend the meetings, and in
some cases undertake a considerable amount of clerical work. The members
of these committees number some 5,600,[417] but of these many take
little or no part in the work, and the effective membership amounts
perhaps to not more than two-thirds of this total.
Footnote 413:
For examples of Care Committees in provincial towns, see ante, pp.
65-66. In one or two Scottish towns also Care Committees have been
formed (see post, pp. 240, 241, 244-5.)
Footnote 414:
In addition to the ordinary elementary schools, Care Committees have
been formed also for the Special Schools for Defective Children, with
the exception of the Physically Defective.
Footnote 415:
In a few cases the committees are composed entirely, or almost
entirely, of working men.
Footnote 416:
In 1908 the Care Committees were very largely composed of teachers.
Out of the total membership of 2,939, 1,278, or about three-sevenths,
were teachers, 1,391 were school managers, and only 270 were voluntary
workers. (London County Council, Agenda for Sub-Committee on Underfed
Children, Appendix A, July 6, 1908.)
Footnote 417:
London County Council, list of members of Children's Care (School)
Committees, 1912.
The functions of the Care Committees are numerous and important. They do
not merely decide which children shall receive school meals. They have
also to "follow up" cases of children who are found by the School
Medical Officer to need medical treatment, and, by visiting the homes,
induce the parents to obtain this treatment; often they arrange for the
supply of spectacles at reduced rates and collect payment from the
parents by instalments. Further, they have to advise parents in
connection with the employment of their children, referring suitable
cases to the Local Juvenile Advisory Committee, Apprenticeship Committee
or other agency, and generally befriending the children leaving school.
Some committees undertake the work in connection with the Children's
Country Holidays Fund. Frequently the Care Committee makes arrangements
for the supply of boots,[418] and sometimes also clothing, gratuitously
or at reduced rates.
Footnote 418:
At the end of 1911, organisations for the supply of boots were in
existence in 1,012 schools. These organisations were controlled by the
Care Committees, managers, or head teachers. (Report of the London
County Council for 1911, Vol. IV., p. 38.)
The advantages of such a system of voluntary workers, acting in
connection with, and under the guidance of, the Local Authority are
many. The volunteer worker, as has often been pointed out, can bring to
bear on individual cases a patience and an enthusiasm which the official
has no time to bestow. By getting into friendly relations with the
mother, the volunteer visitor will often be able to help the family in
numberless ways. The Care Committee system represents, indeed, one of
the most hopeful movements of the time, denoting, as it does, an
awakening of the social conscience and a revolt against the old system
of district visiting, which meant too frequently merely the giving of a
dole, a system which encouraged a patronising attitude on the one hand,
and a cadging habit on the other. From the Care Committee visitor little
in the way of material gifts is to be expected. Instead, some effort is
demanded from the parent. He, or more usually she, is asked to
co-operate with the Care Committee in doing what is necessary for the
child's welfare. Moreover, the Care Committee is invaluable as a means
of educating public opinion. Many will be found who, though perhaps
strongly opposed in theory to the whole system of the provision of free
meals, are yet willing to work for the children, and by contact with the
children and their homes will learn something of the life and struggles
of the poor, and a better mutual understanding will be brought about. As
the Warden of a Settlement in Liverpool has pointed out, "it is a
constant lament of administrators of education that the public care more
for saving the rates than making citizens. The complaint is justified.
We only care about what we understand; the public understands the money
it has to pay, but it does not understand what happens to it. As a
matter of fact ninety per cent. of the ratepaying public have never been
at a feeding centre or seen a medical inspection; and their own
education was of such a scanty nature that one cannot expect their
general imagination to supply the deficiency. Hence they grumble at
paying for a service of which they are ignorant. The remedy lies in
making them understand. From the young men and women of these families
we can recruit Care Committee workers. They will visit the homes of the
people, the feeding centres and the school; their imagination will be
stirred and their intellects quickened; finally, the time will come when
an enlightened public opinion will be the critic of the education policy
of our city."[419] Splendid work is now being done in many parts of
London by the Care Committees and it is greatly to be regretted that the
system has not been more widely adopted in the provinces.
Footnote 419:
"Care Committee Work in Liverpool," by F. J. Marquis, in the _School
Child_, September, 1913, p. 11.
On the other hand, the disadvantages of relying only on voluntary help
must not be overlooked. In the first place there is the difficulty of
securing enough workers. Remarkable as has been the response to the
appeal of the County Council for helpers, yet many more are needed. In
the residential parts of London this difficulty is not so much felt, but
in the poorer districts, where the need is greatest, it is impossible to
find enough people with leisure to devote to the work. From every Care
Committee that we have visited comes the cry for more helpers. If the
friendly relations with the parents are to be established, which are
essential if the maximum amount of good is to be derived from the
various activities which are undertaken by the school authorities, it is
of the greatest importance that the homes should be visited; but it is
rare to find a sufficient supply of workers forthcoming for this
visiting to be undertaken regularly. It is true that some committees
visit the homes once a month or sometimes even, in doubtful cases, once
a fortnight, but more frequently visits are paid at long intervals, and
in some districts many of the homes are never visited at all. At a
school in East London, for instance (and this is typical of many
others), we were told that it is found in practice quite impossible for
every case to be visited, since there are only two members of the Care
Committee to undertake this work. A committee in another district
reports, "visits in doubtful cases are made twice a year, supplemented
by quarterly visits," while another committee in the same district
reports that, "owing to the lack of sufficient help, it is often
necessary to receive parents instead of visiting homes."
Still more difficult is it to obtain honorary secretaries. The functions
of a Care Committee are, as we have seen, many and varied, and involve
an enormous amount of work, if they are to be performed efficiently,
especially in districts where few volunteers can be obtained and where,
in consequence, a disproportionate amount of visiting falls to the lot
of the secretary. The secretary of a Care Committee in Stepney found
that it was necessary to give three quarters of her time to the work,
and "even so, outside help had to be called in to keep the clerical work
even approximately up to date."[420] The secretary of another school in
East London informed us that he had to give four full days a week,
besides some hours devoted to clerical work in the evening; while
another secretary, in Central London, gives about four hours' work on an
average five days a week. Obviously it is impossible to secure enough
volunteers. Many who undertake the work of secretary find after a few
months that they are obliged to give it up. The history of too many Care
Committees is a record of ever-changing secretaries, interspersed with
more or less prolonged interregna. In one district--and this appears to
be typical of London as a whole--we were told that, out of 91 schools,
some 10 or 15 were at the time without secretaries, and the duties had
to be undertaken by the Assistant Organisers. These officials are
already overburdened, and the result is that all but the most urgent
work is left undone. Nothing is more disheartening for an energetic
secretary who has laboured hard to effect some improvement in the
condition of the children than to find, when forced by stress of
circumstances to give up the work, that no one can be found to undertake
the secretaryship and that, consequently, much of the devoted labour of
months, perhaps of years, is undone.
Footnote 420:
"Care Committees," by A. S., in the _School Child_, March 1913, pp.
4-5.
The need for the appointment of paid secretaries for each school or
group of schools was, as we have seen, pointed out as long ago as
1908.[421] Since that date the activities of the Care Committees have
been enormously extended, and, in certain districts at any rate, if the
work is to be done with any degree of efficiency, the necessity for such
paid secretaries is becoming absolutely imperative.
Footnote 421:
See ante, pp. 139-140.
But apart from the difficulty of securing enough voluntary workers,
there are inherent disadvantages in the present system. The enquiry into
the circumstances of the parents is not a duty for which the ordinary
volunteer worker is fitted. And the necessity of making these enquiries
may endanger those friendly relations which it is of such importance to
establish between the visitor and the parent. The enquiry is generally
totally inadequate. In the majority of cases the visitor is not trained
for the purpose, and frequently finds this work distasteful. Each
visitor has a different standard. No enquiry is made from the
employer[422]; indeed, in the large number of cases where the father is
casually employed such enquiry would be impracticable. In many cases
there is little or no knowledge of what other help is being given to the
family. Many committees insist on the parents appearing before them to
answer enquiries as to their circumstances. This is sometimes, as we
have seen, rendered necessary by the lack of workers and the consequent
impossibility of visiting the homes. But even if the homes are visited
some committees consider that the obligation on the part of the parents
to apply in person furnishes a test of the genuineness of their need.
The attendance of the father, where it can be secured, is useful as it
proves a means of bringing home to him his responsibility. It is not
infrequently found that the mother has applied for meals without the
husband's knowledge. On the other hand, as we have already shown, the
insistence on the parents' attendance may result in considerable
hardship to them, entailing perhaps the loss of half a day's work. They
are often kept waiting for a considerable time. Moreover, the assembling
of numbers together, all for the purpose of making application for
meals, tends to diminish the sense of self-respect. For this reason many
committees consider it undesirable to summon the parents, or they only
summon them in special cases. When the parent is summoned and does not
attend, the Council lays down that, if no immediate home visit is
possible, a notice shall be sent to the parent that if he or she fails
to attend before the committee or to show some good reason for not
attending, the committee will be obliged to charge for the meals
supplied to the children.[423] As far as we can discover, this is very
rarely done. The far more usual course is for the committee to send a
notice to the effect that the meals will be discontinued unless the
parent appeals.
Footnote 422:
Enquiries from the employers may not be made by the Care Committee
without the consent of the parent or guardian. Where the committee is
doubtful of the accuracy of the parents' statements, the case can be
referred to the Divisional Superintendent, who may make such
enquiries.
Footnote 423:
London County Council, Handbook containing general information with
reference to Children's Care, 1912, pp. 18-19.
Another disadvantage arising from the utilisation of the service of
voluntary workers alone, is that no sufficient control can be exercised
by the Central Authority to enforce a common policy. A certain amount of
latitude is desirable so as to allow scope for individual initiative and
experiment. But in the matter of selection of the children to be fed
want of uniformity is wholly to be condemned. The diversity in methods
that prevails is in effect amazing. In two schools situated almost side
by side, and drawing their children from the same streets, the
percentage fed may be, in the one case, two, in the other ten, fifteen
or even more.[424] We have found this lack of uniformity in other towns,
since the numbers fed depend very largely on the views taken by
individual teachers, but in London there is superadded the diversity
produced by the divergence of views of the different Care Committees. In
one Care Committee the socialist element will be predominant. In another
the work may be done on strictly "C.O.S." lines; the meals are regarded
simply as a form of relief, and the feeding-list is cut down to the
lowest limit.[425]
Footnote 424:
Thus in three schools in South London, attended by children whose home
circumstances were very similar, the majority of the parents being
casual labourers, the percentages of children who were receiving free
meals in March, 1913, were 1.8, 2.9 and 7.5. In another neighbouring
school, where the children were very little poorer, nineteen per cent.
were being fed.
Footnote 425:
The most extreme example of the "strict" type is the committee which
deals with a group of schools in St. George's-in-the-East. It is held
that, the provision of meals being merely a form of relief, the work
should be as far as possible dissociated from the school; the parents
do not make application to the teachers but to a central office.
The County Council has not found it possible to lay down any uniform
rule for the guidance of the committees.[426] Though, in a small number
of cases, the committee professes to have a scale, usually that laid
down by Rowntree,[427] in practice this is a very rough criterion,
frequently departed from, and the cases are all virtually decided on
their merits. Moreover, the policy of the same Care Committee even will
not always be a consistent one. The decision as to any particular case
will vary with the presence or absence of particular members of the
Committee.
Footnote 426:
"Having regard to the varying circumstances and conditions of
families, it is considered undesirable to fix a minimum wage which
would justify children being provided with school meals, and each case
should therefore be considered upon its own merits." (London County
Council, Handbook containing general information with reference to
Children's Care, 1912, p. 22.)
Footnote 427:
That is, 3s. for an adult and 2s. 3d. for a child. (_Poverty_, by B.
Seebohm Rowntree, 1901, p. 110.)
Where children from the same family attend different schools--a frequent
occurrence in London--meals may be granted at one school and refused at
another. The County Council have issued elaborate regulations for
ensuring that in such cases each Care Committee concerned shall know
what the others are doing.[428] But though many Care Committees do
communicate with one another, or notify cases to a Mutual Registration
Committee, the County Council's instructions are frequently disregarded.
The secretary of one committee informed us that during the whole time of
her secretaryship--a period of over a year--she never once received any
notification from another committee. Even where the cases are notified,
it by no means follows that the several committees concerned adopt the
same plan of action; often we have found that the one committee did not
know in any particular case what the result of their notification had
been. One secretary even told us that though all the committees in her
district mutually notified cases to each other, this was solely for
information; they pursued their own policy, merely noting that some of
the children of the family were receiving meals at another school.[429]
Footnote 428:
Handbook containing general information with reference to Children's
Care, 1912, p. 20.
Footnote 429:
The County Council, a few months ago, drew attention to the lack of
uniformity prevailing. "In a number of cases it has been found that
the form has not been issued, with the result that Care Committees
dealing with part of a family are unacquainted with the relief
afforded by another Care Committee." (_London County Council Gazette_,
March 3, 1913, p. 210.)
To the parents this diversity of treatment of similar cases can only
appear as capricious. Successive visits by the Care Committee visitors
from different schools, all making the same enquiries, are a needless
source of irritation to the parent, while being at the same time
unnecessary expenditure of time and energy for the visitors. Attempts
have been made in some districts to put an end to this waste of energy
and overlapping. In Camberwell, two or three years ago, it was decided
that the Care Committee visiting should be organised by streets instead
of by schools. The Care Committees of the different schools all sent on
their cases to the secretary of the organisation, who referred them to
the visitor for the particular street.[430] This scheme worked very well
for about eighteen months, but was then given up chiefly because the
secretary could not continue the work. Now three Care Committees in this
district have been amalgamated, so as to secure some measure of
uniformity.[431] In a few other districts also, the Care Committees for
groups of schools, though nominally separately appointed for each
school, are in effect composed of the same people. Quite recently an
attempt to prevent overlapping has been made by the County Council on a
larger scale. In Whitechapel the Council have provided a Central Office
where case papers will be kept, and paid assistants have been appointed
who will notify to each Care Committee any assistance which is being
given to the brothers and sisters of the children with whom they are
dealing.
Footnote 430:
"School Care Committees," by Maude F. Davies, in _Progress_, July,
1910, p. 177.
Footnote 431:
At St. George's-in-the-East five committees have been amalgamated and
then re-divided into two, one dealing with all the Jewish, one with
all the Christian, children of the group. Overlapping is thus almost
completely avoided.
(e)--The Provision for Paying Children.
The County Council from the first has not looked with approval on the
proposal that meals should be provided as a matter of convenience to
parents who are willing to pay for them. "Only cases of exceptional
hardship," declared the Education Committee, "_e.g._, children of
widowers or of widows who are compelled, owing to their work, to be away
from home all day--should be so dealt with."[432] In such cases payment
must be made in advance and a week's notice be given, the full cost of
the meals being charged.[433] Consequently, in most schools we find that
no parents or only an insignificant number are voluntarily paying for
the meals.[434] But that there is a certain demand for such provision is
shown by the number of applications received where the Care Committee
encourages such a plan. In one school, for instance, we were informed
that a number of parents paid; sometimes when the children had been
receiving free meals the parents wished the children to continue having
them when the home circumstances improved, and were quite willing to pay
the cost. In such cases they preferred the children to go to the Cookery
Centre, this being looked on as superior to the feeding-centre. In
another district we were told that, though there was a demand on the
part of the parents, this was not encouraged, partly because the staff
of supervisors was inadequate to cope with larger numbers. There is
frequently an unfortunate difference in the treatment of the paying and
the non-paying children. At one centre, for instance, the "necessitous"
children are placed at one table, and are supplied with food provided by
the Alexandra Trust; the paying children are placed at another and are
given food cooked at the Cookery Centre. At another school we were told
that the paying children were fed at one end of the room, the
necessitous children at the other; incidentally the paying children had
to stand, since there were no chairs available, while the necessitous
children sat on forms. In several schools the parents pay for milk or
codliver oil when this is recommended by the doctor. In at least one
school, however, we were told that though some of the parents would be
willing to pay for this milk, it was too much trouble to collect the
money, so no payment was asked. In one or two schools milk is provided
for any child who likes to pay a halfpenny, and this provision is very
largely taken advantage of.
Footnote 432:
London County Council Minutes, November 2, 1909, p. 841.
Footnote 433:
The charge includes the cost of preparation and service of the meals,
and is calculated to the nearest farthing. (London County Council,
Handbook containing general information with reference to Children's
Care, 1912, pp. 27-28.)
Footnote 434:
In 1912-13 the number of individual children who paid the full cost of
the meals was 2,521, that is, only one-fortieth of the number of
"necessitous" children who were fed. The amount so received was £863.
In the special schools for mentally defective children, where the
provision of meals is carried on on the same lines as in the ordinary
elementary schools, the proportion of children who pay for the meals is
greater, since, owing to the distance from school of many of the
children's homes, provision has to be made for non-necessitous as well
as necessitous. In the Cripple Schools special provision has for many
years been made by the Cripple Children's Dinners Committee. This body
provides the food, the County Council supplying the apparatus and
attendance. Dinners are supplied for all the children at a charge of 2d.
each. The parents appear thoroughly to appreciate the provision made,
and the great majority of them pay the full cost, only a few of the
children receiving the dinner free or at a reduced price.[435]
Footnote 435:
In 1911-12 the expenditure on food materials amounted to £4,273 2s.
0d., and the payments for dinners to £4,206 15s. 9d. Out of a total of
523,266 dinners supplied, only 33,043, or 6·3 per cent., were given
free. The average cost of the dinner, for food materials only, was
1·96d. (Report of Cripple Children's Dinners Committee for 1911-12,
pp. 10, 11.)
(f)--The Service of the Meals.
The results of the half-hearted fashion in which London undertook the
responsibility for its underfed children are seen nowhere more clearly
than in the arrangements made for serving the meals. The County Council
seems to have been actuated throughout rather by the desire to keep the
expense down to the minimum than to supply the children with the most
suitable food and to see that the meals were served under civilising
conditions. In the early years after the Council took over the
provision, the Local Committees were left to make the best arrangements
that they could. Little encouragement was given them in any endeavour to
provide wholesome and varied meals under conditions likely to exercise
an educational influence over the children. Still less was any attempt
made to enforce such a policy. The reports are almost silent on this
aspect of the question, though the scanty references which are to be
found show a far from satisfactory state of affairs. In 1908, for
instance, it was reported that at thirty schools, where 3,090 children
were fed, plates and mugs were not provided. "This has meant generally,"
reports the Executive Officer, "that the children brought their own mugs
and ate the food out of their hands." In twenty other schools
insufficient provision was made for washing up the utensils used and,
"as food was served to the children in successive relays, two or more
children used each drinking vessel or plate before it had been washed."
"The usual meal has been a dinner of soup (sometimes containing meat),
with, in certain cases, a form of pudding as an alternative. In the
great majority of cases this was the daily meal for months without
variety."[436] The Care Committee organisers, in their Report on the
Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in the same year, remark
that, considering "the poor accommodation and the inferior quality of
the meals often provided for the children," together with the fact that
the highest average number of meals per child was 4·4 per week, it could
not be expected that there would be much noticeable improvement in the
physical condition of the children."[437]
Footnote 436:
London County Council, Agenda for Sub-Committee on Underfed Children,
Appendix A., July 6, 1908.
Footnote 437:
London County Council, Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous
Children in twelve selected schools, 1908, p. 25.
Since the formation of the Local Associations of Care Committees in 1909
conditions have improved, but they are still far from satisfactory. As
we have already mentioned, these Associations were formed in order to
introduce some measure of uniformity into the work of feeding the
necessitous children of the metropolis. They were from henceforth to be
responsible for the arrangements made for the actual serving of the
meals. The selection of a suitable centre rests with them, and it is
their duty to arrange for the requisite supply of food and for the
proper service of the meals and supervision of the children during the
meal time.
The food may be supplied by the Alexandra Trust, a local caterer, a
cookery centre or a kitchen managed by the Local Association. The
quality of the food varies according to the arrangements made by each
Local Association. The food specially prepared for the Jewish children
appears to be generally good. At the cookery centres again, though
complaints are occasionally heard that the dinners are badly cooked,
they are as a rule appetising, and the menu is varied. The great
majority of the meals are, however, supplied by the Alexandra Trust. Ten
different dinner menus have been drawn up by this Trust, with a slight
variation for summer,[438] but in practice there is very little variety,
practically the same dietary being repeated week after week; usually
there is a deficiency of proteids and fats. The quantity supplied for
each child varies considerably in different centres. In one that we
visited, for instance, each child was given a large helping of suet
pudding with minced meat, followed by a large plateful of rice, and
second helpings were given if required; at another, where the dinner
consisted of only one course, with a piece of bread, the portions were
very small; the cook admitted that some of the children could eat more,
but if any were allowed a second helping all would ask for it, whether
they wanted it or not, and the food would then be left uneaten.
Footnote 438:
For menus, see Appendix I.
How far the infants' needs are specially catered for depends on each
Local Association. Sometimes they are fed by themselves at the Cookery
Centre, where it is easier to provide suitable food and to pay
individual attention to their wants. More often they go with the elder
children to the feeding-centres. The Alexandra Trust has drawn up a
special menu for infants, and in centres where the food is supplied
otherwise than by the Trust the Council have instructed the Local
Association to make special provision.[439] But it is rare to find any
such provision made. As a rule the infants have the same food as the
elder children, though in centres where there is careful supervision,
and where the infants are placed at a separate table,[440] the size of
the helping is suited to their appetites. In many centres the number of
infants is so few as to make the preparation of a separate diet hardly
worth while, and the provision of special food has been known to give
rise to jealousy on the part of the elder children.
Footnote 439:
Minutes of London County Council, December 20, 1910, p. 1491.
Footnote 440:
Frequently the infants are placed with the older children at the
ordinary tables, which are too high for them to reach up to with any
comfort; it is sometimes impossible for them to eat without spilling
their food. (See the description of a feeding centre, post, p. 167.)
Ordinarily one meal a day is provided, this meal being almost invariably
dinner, but in cases of special necessity or delicacy an additional meal
may be given. This meal may be either breakfast, milk or codliver oil.
The practice varies in each school. In some schools breakfast is never
given, or given only in very rare cases. In others breakfasts as well as
dinners are given to the most necessitous children. At St.
George's-in-the-East formerly only breakfasts were given, but now
dinners are given in addition to all the children on the feeding-list;
the breakfast is used as a test, the theory being that if the child does
not come for breakfast it shall not receive dinner, but in practice this
plan is not strictly carried out. Milk and codliver oil are given in
most schools, when recommended by the School Doctor; in some schools
milk is also given on economic grounds, as an additional meal to
specially necessitous children, instead of breakfast. In a few schools a
quantity of milk is supplied in the middle of the morning, and any child
who pays a halfpenny can have it, the children, especially the infants,
being encouraged to spend their halfpence on milk instead of on sweets.
Where no other suitable accommodation is available, the meals may be
served in the School Hall, but this method is not encouraged by the
Council, and is frequently objected to by the teachers, and it is only
occasionally utilised. Often, as we have already mentioned, the meals
are served in the cookery centres, but the number of children that can
be thus accommodated is necessarily limited, and the centre may be
closed during the summer. Till recently some Local Associations arranged
for their children to be sent to small eating-houses. We have already
pointed out the disadvantages--the impossibility of making the meal in
any sense educational, and the lack of control over the
dietary--inherent, even under the most favourable conditions, in this
system. But in London, in many of these cookshops, the conditions were
the reverse of favourable; they could, indeed, only be described as
deplorable. For instance, at one eating-house, where the children were
sent for their dinners up to the spring of 1912, the room used was
hardly larger than a cupboard, and only six or eight children could be
fed at a time; the children had to go in relays and, when the numbers
were very large, had to sit on the stairs eating their food. In others
the conditions were equally bad. The plan of utilising restaurants is,
we are glad to say, falling into disfavour, but it is not yet entirely
abandoned.
The most usual method is for the children to be sent to centres. These
centres are frequently basement rooms, dark and cheerless. Occasionally
plants or flowers are provided, but it is very rare to find any attempt
at table decoration. Since the average cost of serving the meals is much
less proportionately if the number of children is large, the County
Council has, for the sake of economy, decided that, where possible,
schools shall be grouped, and the children from them fed at one
centre.[441] As we have already pointed out, the herding together of
large numbers of children from different schools deprives the meal of
much of its educational value. The children from the different schools
will come in at different times. Often the centre is not large enough
for them all to be accommodated at once, and they have to be served in
relays, with the consequence that the meal must be hurried through. They
are usually seated at long tables, and are often crowded together, so
that adequate supervision is rendered very difficult.
Footnote 441:
London County Council, Handbook containing general information with
reference to Children's Care, 1912, p. 31.
The supervision is occasionally undertaken voluntarily by teachers, and
in many centres by other voluntary workers. Where their regular
attendance can be secured the good results are soon apparent. But the
visits of voluntary supervisors are too often irregular, and it may
happen that no one is present to supervise the meal, except the women
who serve the food. In many districts it is impossible to obtain the
services of volunteers at all, and paid supervisors are appointed.[442]
These may be assistant teachers, retired teachers or other suitable
persons. One supervisor may be appointed for every hundred children, but
frequently the number to be looked after by one supervisor far exceeds a
hundred. Thus, in three centres we visited, there were 140 to 160
children present, whilst in two others the numbers were well over two
hundred; in all these there was only one supervisor.
Footnote 442:
The payment is 7s. 6d. a week. (_Ibid._, p. 34.)
The County Council has drawn up regulations for the management of the
centres,[443] but these regulations are largely disregarded. The
Council, for instance, has laid it down that boys and girls are to be
appointed to act as monitors, to assist in laying the tables and serving
the meals. In many centres this is not even attempted, and occasionally
where their services are utilised, owing to the large number of children
present, the supervisor is unable to devote much attention to the
training of the monitors, and their presence rather adds to the
prevailing confusion than conduces to the orderly and quiet service of
the meal. Another of the Council's regulations directs that a separate
mug shall be provided for each child.[444] But it appears to be the
exception rather than the rule for this instruction to be observed.
Though a sufficient supply of mugs is, or can on application be,
supplied for every centre, the women who serve the meals, being only
employed and paid for a fixed time, object to the extra labour involved
in washing up. Frequently no mugs are placed on the table at all, though
we were told that the children could have water if they asked for it;
when mugs are provided there is often only one to every two or three
children, perhaps to every five or six! At one centre that we visited,
though the girls were allowed mugs, the boys were not trusted, and mugs
of water were placed on a side table for their indiscriminate use after
the meal.
Footnote 443:
_Ibid._, pp. 29-30.
Footnote 444:
_Ibid._, pp. 32-33.
The actual management of each centre varies, of course, very largely
according to the personality of the supervisor. We have visited some two
or three centres where all the arrangements were admirable; the children
were quiet and well-behaved, there was little or no waste of food, and
attention was paid to individual wants. But these cases are
unfortunately exceptional. Out of twenty centres in different parts of
London that we have seen,[445] in at least half the educational
advantages to be derived from the common meal are imperfectly
realised.[446] In a few cases the supervisors appear to consider this
aspect as but of secondary importance. So long as the children are fed
and some sort of rough order preserved, they are satisfied. The meal may
be eaten in a babel of noise. Food which the children do not fancy they
will throw on the floor, little attempt being made to prevent waste. But
in any case, in many centres, owing to the large number of children to
be attended to, the task of inculcating table manners is an almost
impossible one. Though the supervisors do their utmost, for instance, to
teach the children to use spoons and forks, it is not uncommon to
observe children eating with their fingers--even occasionally licking
their plates! It is impossible for the supervisor to give that
individual attention which is absolutely essential if the meal is to be
in any sense educational.
Footnote 445:
These centres were all visited in the spring, summer or autumn of
1913. We describe some typical examples in the Appendix to this
chapter.
Footnote 446:
In 1911, as the result of an inspection of all the feeding centres by
the school doctors, it was reported that "in one-fifth ... the
conditions required material improvement, to make the giving of these
meals an educational function, and to impress the hygiene of proper
eating and cleanliness on the children." (Annual Report of the London
County Council for 1911, Vol. III., p. 170.)
(g)--Overlapping with the Poor Law Authority.
We have already described the extent to which, in the provinces, the
provision of meals by the Local Education Authority overlaps the
granting of relief by the Poor Law Authorities. London is no exception
to the general rule. In 1908 it was found that out of 1,218 families
investigated, 3·2 per cent. were at the time in receipt of out-relief,
while 13·54 per cent. had recently been receiving such relief.[447] In
February, 1910, it was reported that, of the children who were being fed
all over London, 4·6 per cent. were from families to whom Poor Law
relief was being granted.[448] The confusion was the greater since the
practice of the Guardians varied in each Union. "There is no uniformity
of policy or action amongst the Boards," reports the Education Committee
of the County Council in 1910. "For example, there could hardly be a
wider divergence of principle and practice between public bodies than
that which exists between such Boards as Paddington, Fulham, and St.
George's-in-the-East on the one hand, and Islington and Poplar on the
other. In the case of Fulham, the Guardians, when assessing the relief
to be granted, take into account the extent to which school meals are
already being supplied to children of the family ... but in the case of
Poplar, the Guardians have informed the various school Care Committees
that 'the fact that a family is in receipt of poor law relief should not
be considered as a reason for the children not being supplied with
meals.'"[449] To put an end to all this overlapping and diversity of
practice, the Council proposed that the Guardians should purchase school
meals for the children of families who were in receipt of relief. The
Local Government Board, however, declined to agree to this course. In
practice, they thought, it was hardly possible to avoid all difficulty
of overlapping, "though it should be feasible, with careful
administration, to restrict it within reasonable limits"; the only
suggestion they offered towards the solution of the difficulty was that,
if it appeared to the Education Authority that a child whose parents
were receiving out-relief required supervision by the Guardians, the
Education Authority should communicate with the Guardians with a view to
an investigation of the circumstances.[450] This suggestion was acted
upon, and the Care Committees were instructed in future to notify to the
Guardians all cases in which, to their knowledge, necessitous children
belonged to families in receipt of poor law relief.[451] But such
notification had little practical result. The Guardians continued to
grant inadequate relief, and the Council felt compelled to continue to
provide these children with food. How necessary school meals were was,
indeed, clearly shown by a resolution of the Hammersmith Guardians, who
themselves actually declared that, "when school children's parents are
in receipt of outdoor relief, that fact should in general be taken as an
indication that such children would be benefited by school meals, and
not as an indication that they are adequately fed, since, as a matter of
fact, outdoor relief is seldom or never adequate"![452]
Footnote 447:
London County Council, Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous
Children in twelve selected schools, 1908, p. 22.
Footnote 448:
Annual Report of London County Council for 1910, Chapter XLI., p. 7.
Footnote 449:
Minutes of the London County Council, February 15, 1910, p. 175.
Footnote 450:
_Ibid._, July 26-27, 1910, p. 319.
Footnote 451:
_London County Council Gazette_, May 29, 1911, p. 370.
Footnote 452:
_School Child_, February, 1912, p. 4.
Though the Council's proposal that the Boards of Guardians should repay
the cost of the meals was rejected by the Local Government Board, as far
as London generally was concerned, individual Boards have agreed to the
plan. In Lambeth and Chelsea the Guardians have consented to pay the
cost of meals supplied to the children of parents who are receiving
out-relief, if they consider that school meals are necessary.[453] At
Hampstead, where the funds for the provision of school meals are
supplied by the Council of Social Welfare,[454] an informal arrangement
has been made with the Guardians. Where the mother can stay at home and
can be trusted to expend the relief given in food for the children, the
Guardians have agreed to give ample relief. Where the mother goes out to
work or cannot be trusted to feed the children properly, or where it is
undesirable for the children to go home, the Council of Social Welfare
pays for school dinners.
Footnote 453:
Minutes of London County Council, November 5, 1912, p. 1093; _London
County Council Gazette_, January 20, 1913, p. 65.
Footnote 454:
See ante, p. 141 n.
But as a rule no definite arrangement is made. A few Care Committees
refuse to feed children whose parents are receiving relief, but in the
great majority of schools cases are to be found where children are being
fed by the Care Committee, while their parents are being relieved by the
Guardians.[455] Frequently no official communication passes between the
two authorities concerned. The Guardians may learn indirectly through
the Relieving Officer, or perhaps through some member of their Board who
happens also to be a member of the Care Committee, that the latter are
feeding the children. Where a system of mutual registration has been
established, each authority will, theoretically, be informed of what the
other is doing. How far all cases are actually notified will depend on
the secretary of each individual Care Committee. And this system of
mutual registration does not prevent overlapping in many cases where the
children are on the feeding-list for a short time only, since cases are
often notified only once a month, by which time the necessity for
feeding may have ceased. Occasionally the Guardians ask the Care
Committee to inform them if they discover any cases where the relief
appears inadequate, so that they may increase it, if necessary. In other
Unions the Guardians deliberately count on the provision of school meals
to supplement the relief given; they tell the parents to apply for
dinners and grant less relief in consequence, thereafter priding
themselves on keeping down the rates.
Footnote 455:
Most of the cases of overlapping are, of course, cases in which the
Guardians are granting out-relief. There are also the cases where the
Guardians are relieving a widow by maintaining some of her children in
Poor Law schools, but the mother has not sufficient income adequately
to maintain the remaining child or children.
APPENDIX
EXAMPLES OF FEEDING CENTRES IN LONDON
(a)--School, visited October, 1913.
Here the dinner is served in the Infants' School in a room at the top of
the building. Some sixty infants, all attending the school, were being
fed. They entered the room two by two and sat down together at low
tables on specially small chairs. Two teachers were present throughout
the meal; they served the food, and four of the children handed it
round. Perfect order was kept, and at the end of the meal all the
children rose together, and, after saying grace, marched out quietly.
The food is cooked on the premises, the menu being drawn up by one of
the teachers and varied every day. The whole meal was served in as
attractive a manner as possible, and testified eloquently to the care
and thought which must have been spent on its organisation.
(b)--School, visited June, 1913.
Here the meal is served in the school hall. The Headmistress much
objects to this plan, since it leaves the atmosphere close and stuffy
all the afternoon. Moreover, the bringing in of the tables and forms, an
operation which has to be begun twenty minutes before the end of morning
school, causes a considerable commotion. On the day of our visit 160
children, boys, girls and infants, were receiving dinner. For this
number there were only one supervisor and two servers, assisted by five
or six monitresses chosen from among the elder children. As a result of
this inadequate supervision the meal was served in a perfect babel of
noise; the children shouted and screamed and banged their spoons on the
table. A bell was rung at intervals throughout the meal to obtain
silence, but no attention was paid to it. The fact that there was a
deficiency of seating accommodation heightened the confusion. At the end
of each table a child had to stand, and those sitting down were crowded
much too closely together. Separate tables were reserved for the
infants, of whom there were a large number, some of them tiny mites of
three years old. The tables, however, were not specially adapted for
them, being of the ordinary height. In consequence many of the little
ones had considerable difficulty in feeding themselves, their heads only
just appearing above the table, and, of course, nobody had time to
attend to their wants. It is only fair to add that we saw the centre at
a particularly unfortunate time, since the supervisor had only taken
over the work a few days prior to our visit, and therefore had not yet
obtained a firm hold over the children. The noise, we were told, was
usually not so great.
(c)--Centre, visited May, 1913.
This centre, attended by children from two neighbouring schools, is a
striking illustration of what can be effected by patient and careful
supervision. At the time of our visit this work was being performed by
an assistant teacher, but before her appointment the secretary or some
other member of the Care Committee daily supervised the meal for two
years. The meal was served in a large, cheerful room. No tablecloths
were supplied; at one time flowers were provided, much to the joy of the
children, but it was found impossible to continue this practice. The
children were seated at small tables, some eight or ten at each, an
arrangement which renders the work of supervision very much easier.
There were no infants present, as these are sent to the Cookery Centre.
A boy or girl was responsible for each table; they handed round the
food, paying attention to the individual appetites of the children. No
waste of food was permitted, the children being kept till they had
finished. The whole scene, the quiet and orderly behaviour of the
children and their consideration for one another's wants, left a most
pleasing impression upon the mind. At the date of our visit the numbers
were small, only some 50 children being present, but we were told that
their behaviour was quite as orderly even in winter, when the numbers
were much larger.
(d)--Centre, visited March, 1913.
This centre is a large basement room in a Mission Hall, dark and
unattractive, accommodating between 200 and 300 children. It serves
several neighbouring schools, and the numbers on the day of our visit
were too large to admit of all the children sitting down together. As
each child came in and gave up its ticket, it seized a spoon and fork
from a pile on a table near the door, and rushed to its place. When
about half the children were seated, grace was sung or rather shouted,
and then the food was brought in and literally flung on to the table by
the server and one or two of the elder boys. Though the numbers were so
large there was only one supervisor, though we were told that
occasionally one of the sisters from the neighbouring settlement came to
help. With such inadequate supervision it was, of course, impossible to
teach table manners. The children, the boys especially, gobbled down
their dinner, amid a hubbub of noise, and hurried out as soon as they
had finished, other boys rushing in to take their places. No special
provision was made for the infants; they were placed with the other
children and were given the same food. No attention was paid to
individual appetites and much of the food, we were told, was wasted.
(e)--Centre, visited June, 1913.
This is a centre for Jewish children, serving three or four neighbouring
schools. The room not being large enough to accommodate all the children
at once, two relays are necessary, even in summer. Over 200 children
were present, but there was only one supervisor, assisted by four or
five women. The children entered in an orderly fashion and seated
themselves at the table, none being allowed to begin the meal till all
were seated. The infants were placed at a separate table; they are given
special food when the dietary provided for the other children is not
suitable for them. Some of the elder girls acted as monitresses and
helped to serve the food and clear up afterwards. Unfortunately, owing
to the fact that other children were waiting to come in, the meal was
necessarily hurried, the second course being placed on the table while
the children were still eating the first course. Though the order
maintained was wonderful, considering the large numbers present, it was
impossible to attend adequately to the children's manners; many of them
were using their fingers, and there appeared to be considerable waste of
food.
(f)--Centre, visited October, 1913.
This is another centre for Jewish children. The dinner was served in a
large, dreary parish hall, to some 200 or 300 children. There was one
supervisor and four servers, while tickets were taken by the caretaker.
Order was well preserved, but only by means of the frequent ringing of a
bell, and by the enforcement of absolute silence. The supervisor said
that if the children were allowed to talk the noise would be unbearable.
Before being given their food, the children were told to hold up their
hands if they were "big eaters," the margin of waste being minimised in
this way. Although the manners and behaviour of the children could not
be said to be bad, the whole effect was singularly unattractive--the
bare room, the large numbers, and the frequent shouted commands and
rebukes of the supervisor leaving no scope for humanising and
educational influences.
CHAPTER IV
THE EXTENT AND CAUSES OF MALNUTRITION
"Defective nutrition," Sir George Newman points out, "stands in the
forefront as the most important of all physical defects from which
school children suffer."[456] Malnutrition, 'debility' and other
physical defects in childhood "are the ancestry of tuberculosis in the
adult. They predispose to disease, and are, in a sense, both its seed
and its soil."[457]
Footnote 456: