would urge on all Local Education Authorities the need for bringing their work for mentally defective children into the closest contact with that of the Mental Deficiency Committee. In making this recommendation they have the full concurrence of the Board of Control. Summary. 18. The suggestions made in this circular may be summed up as follows: (1) Authorities who have not already done so, should perfect their arrangements for the ascertainment of all mentally defective children in their area in accordance with the general principles outlined in this circular. (2) Children in attendance at Special Schools should be passed periodically under review in order that suitable cases may either be returned to the ordinary school or notified to the Mental Deficiency Committee under the provisions of Articles 3, 4, or 6, as the case may be, of the Mental Deficiency (Notification of Children) Regulations, 1914. (3) In the case of mentally defective children who are suitable for admission to Special Schools but for whom for the moment no Special School is available, especially for those who are in no school at all, the Authority's arrangements for the ascertainment of the children and for school attendance should cover arrangements for the supervision of the children by means of home visits, whether by school nurses, care committees, paid welfare workers, or voluntary organizations. (4) The main objects of such supervision are two: (a) to (5) Before notifying a child to the Mental Deficiency Com- (7) Close co-operation should always be secured between 19. It only remains for the Board in commending these suggestions to the early and earnest consideration of Local Education Authorities to add that in the preparation of this circular they have had the advantage of discussing its recommendations with the principal Associations of Authorities, officials, teachers and voluntary workers concerned and with other persons of special experience in dealing with mentally defective children. The Board are glad to know that the circular is generally welcomed and approved by these bodies and persons, and their thanks are due for the assistance they have received from them in drafting recommendations on a very complicated and somewhat vexed problem. It will of course be understood that none of the associations or persons referred to must be taken as necessarily accepting all the suggestions contained in the circular, for which the Board remain solely responsible. A.H. Wood Circular 658. MINISTRY OF HEALTH, Whitehall, S.W. 1, 2nd January, 1926. SIR, 1. I am directed by the Minister of Health to transmit for the consideration of the Guardians the accompanying copies of a Memorandum containing certain provisional proposals for a measure of Poor Law Reform, and to state that the Minister will be glad to receive any observations which the Guardians may wish to offer in regard to those provisional proposals. 2. I am to request that you will bring specially to the notice of the Guardians the fact that these proposals have not been prepared on the ground that the manner in which Boards of Guardians have generally carried out their duties is unsatisfactory. The quality of the service rendered by most Boards of Guardians has been fully appreciated by successive Ministers of Health, and the Minister desires himself to endorse the commendations which have been expressed by his predecessors. 3. In making the provisional proposals, the Minister has in mind other and wider matters of public interest, which may perhaps best be indicated by setting forth again the main objects sought to be attained: (1) The co-ordination and improvement of the provision made for the prevention and treatment of ill health, both institutionally and otherwise, and the inclusion in this provision of all public assistance required as the result of sickness, accident and infirmity. (2) The co-ordination of all forms of public assistance, and especially an improved correlation between poor law relief and unemployment benefit. (3) The decentralisation of the responsibility at present falling on the Minister. (4) The simplification of the financial relations between the Ministry and the Local Authorities, and the freeing of the Local Authorities from the financial restrictions in matters of comparative detail, which are a necessary concomitant of the present system. (5) The correction of certain anomalies of historic origin, such as the association of the registration service (births, deaths and marriages) with the provision for the relief of the poor. 4. In making the proposals the Minister is in no small degree influenced by the fact that the existing organisation of local government is such as seriously to detract from the value to the community of the devoted personal service rendered by so many members of Boards of Guardians. In case after case Parliament has recently decided to assign, not to the Guardians but to other authorities, new social services where the work to be done was either wholly of the nature of public assistance or was indistinguishable in kind from work already being done by the Guardians for persons who were destitute" in the sense in which that word has from time to time been interpreted. There results serious confusion of public agencies and overlapping and duplication of services, to which attention has been repeatedly drawn. The Minister is confident that even those who are not prepared to endorse the proposals now under discussion will agree that measures for the further concentration of responsibility for services at present separated in law and assigned to two cr more agencies and staffs, but in practice tending to prejudice each other by their operation over the same ground, are highly desirable on grounds both of economy and of efficiency. 5. It appears to the Minister that both the ratepayers of the country and the general community cannot but benefit by a change of system which will be directed to securing as close as possible an approach to the position that a single local authority shall be wholly or mainly responsible for the local administration of its area, and coincidently for viewing as a whole the finance of local government in the area. 6. Another large question of general principle may here be mentioned. Boards of Guardians have in certain localities provided and maintained hospitals and other institutions for the treatment of illness and disease, in which medical and surgical services of the most modern and expensive types are available. But these services are in law available only for persons who are qualified to receive them by being in some sense "destitute." They therefore are, and must remain, out of reach of many sections of the community who either cannot or will not bring themselves within the scope of the Poor Law. The national value of this provision would be greatly enhanced if it could, without any question of resort to Poor Law assistance, be made available and acceptable to all classes of the population. Arrangements have, within the knowledge of the Minister, been made in certain areas for the use of this accommodation on payment where spare beds are available, but apart from any question of the strict legality of these arrangements, it cannot be anticipated that the fullest and best use of this accommodation can be made till it ceases to be distinctively Poor Law accommodation. 7. The Minister trusts that it may be of assistance to the Guardians in considering the enclosed memorandum if he supple ments the foregoing general considerations by a statement of the view which, as at present advised, he takes of some of the most important criticisms already evoked by the provisional proposals stated in the memorandum." 8. It is strongly maintained that the provision of public assistance by way of poor relief is a matter at once so specialised and so important that it requires to be managed by special bodies directly elected for the purpose. As regards the specialised character of the duties, it is sufficient again to refer to the continuous policy of Parliament of entrusting to bodies other than the Guardians powers and duties indistinguishable in kind from those of the Guardians themselves. As regards the need for bodies elected on this one issue, the duties are without doubt onerous and the financial implications extremely serious. But this fact seems to the Minister to point, not to a need for separate bodies, but to the desirability of bringing within the purview of the local authority properly so-called matters which must vitally affect the administration and finance appropriate to the area of the authority. The Minister cannot but add that recent experience affords grave reason for apprehension as to the effect on sound local government of a continuance of elections turning on the one issue whether out-relief is to be administered on a higher or lower level. 9. Further, it is contended that the proposals are alien to the immemorial tradition of this country whereby violent breaks of continuity are avoided and institutions gradually modified to meet the changing needs of the people. The Minister is wholly unable to admit the correctness of this contention, since it seems to him that the proposals follow naturally and inevitably out of the decisions of Parliament in recent years to which reference has already been made. 10. It will be an essential principle of any measure of Poor Law Reform for which the Minister is responsible to retain the advantages of sympathetic treatment of the poor and sound administration which result from the consideration of individual cases of distress by persons who, from their local knowledge, are fully acquainted with the facts and are able to appreciate the special needs in their districts. 11. In the Minister's opinion there will remain available to members of Boards of Guardians under the proposals undiminished and indeed enlarged opportunities of public service such as they have been giving for nearly a century. Members of Boards of Guardians will be able to serve as elected members of the Local Authorities by which their present work may be carried out -namely, County Councils, Town Councils and District Councils, and Local Authorities may find it necessary to have the number of their elected members increased in order to enable them to undertake this work. In so far as the responsible Local Authorities resort to the co-option of members of committees for this purpose, the Minister anticipates that they will generally do so mainly in order to bring into their deliberations the local knowledge and experience of former members of Boards of Guardians who may be unwilling to stand for election to the Local Authorities. In rural districts councillors and Guardians are already the same persons, and it is anticipated that under the proposed reorganisation the same people will be substantially responsible for the consideration of individual cases. 12. Questions are being raised as to the position of Poor Law officials under the scheme. It is certainly not in contemplation that existing Poor Law officers should receive other than the fullest consideration. In so far as their services are found to be required under the new organisation (and the Minister does not suppose that the problem of the relief of the poor will be got rid of by a reform of the existing Poor Law organisation), it is anticipated that use will be made of those services by the new Authorities. Where such use cannot be made, the ordinary provisions for dealing with such cases would be included in any Bill for which the Minister makes himself responsible. 13. It is true that the disappearance of the Poor Law Union as an administrative area will frequently necessitate adjustments of the property and liabilities concerned. It is not, however, clear that this must be an expensive process, and the Minister would use every effort to prevent this from being the case. Even opponents of the present proposals admit the need for a resettle |