LEAGUE OF NATIONS ( HIM) WELFARE INFORMATION CENTRE AMUAL REPORT ON CHILD WELFARE (summarising Information received from Governments between May 1940 and December 1941) Geneva, 1942 [Communicated to the Council Official No.: C. 15. M. 15. 1 9 4 2 . IV. and the Members of the [C .Q .S./P.E./C J.2 4 S] League-] Geneva, February 15th, 1942. LEAGUE OF NATIONS CHILD WELFARE INFORMATION CENTRE ANNUAL REPORT ON CHILD WELFARE (summarising Information received from Governments between May 1910 and December 1941) Series of League of Nations Publications IV. SOCIAL 1942. IV. 1. INTRODUCTION At its 1933 session, the Child Welfare Committee passed a resolution—approved by the Council on May 22nd of the same year—the object of which was to obtain each year particulars of the progress made in child welfare in the various countries, from both the legislative and administrative points of view*. In compliance with this resolution, Governments are asked to supply the Secretariat with reports containing such particulars. Some Governments adopted the method of sending in such reports, whilst others provided the material from which the reports were drawn up in the Secretariat. Since April 1940, when the last report was issued, the Secretariat has received information from the following ten countries relating to measures taken in 1939 and 1940 : Page Page Union of South Africa 5 Ireland . • 83 United States of America 39 New Zealand. 8 8 A ustralia.......................... 6 9 Portugal . • 93 Egypt ............................... 77 Switzerland . • 95 France ............................... 8 0 Uruguay . 1 2 2 UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA The Government of the Union of South Africa has forwarded to the Secretariat the report of the Department of Social Welfare for the financial years 1937-1939 This Department was set up on October 1st, 1937, and the report covers the period from its inception to the end of the financial year on March 31st, 1939. The Department is responsible for the administration of the Children’s Act 1937 (with the distinction that all provisions relating to industrial schools and reforma­ tories are administered by the Department of Education). The following information has been extracted from the report. I. C o - o p e r a t i o n w it h P r iv a t e A g e n c ie s The Department recognises that effective co-opera- tion between State and private effort is the keynote of its work. Social work should be looked on as a joint enterprise between the State and private agencies and the co-operation of the latter should be enlisted so that increased State activity may proceed pari passu with increased private effort. In this connection, the Department introduced in 1938 a scheme for the subsid­ isation of thirty workers—since increased to sixty— in the employ of private agencies 2. The considerations which determine departmental approval of social workers proposed by agencies for subsidy are the following : (a) academic qualifications, (b) previous experience, (c) degree of proficiency in both languages, (d) age, (e) character and personality. The Department has also defined the duties incumbent on subsidised social 1 Printed by Cape Times Limited, Cape Town, 1940. 2 Certain information relating to the scheme was published in the Annual Report on Child Welfare published in 1939 (see document C.91.M.50.1939.IV, page 7). — 6 - workers, at the same time providing that the executive committee of the employing society may exclude the worker from performing one or more of the duties specified after obtaining the Department’s approval for such exclusion. It is expected that the scheme will have a profound effect upon privately conducted social work, not only in putting the agencies in a position to employ workers where they would otherwise not be able to do so, but also in raising their standards of work. The scheme should also be of real value to the State, since many of the State welfare projects depend upon the effectiveness of private agencies not only in respect of their proper administration but more particularly for the intensive reconstructive work which should complement them. II. C h i l d W e l f a r e i. The Child-welfare Movement. The first impetus given to the movement in South Africa, as in many other countries, was the recognition of the necessity for reducing a high infantile mortality rate. Publication of certain vital statistics in 1906 led to the passing of the Infant Life Protection Act of 1907 by the Cape Parliament. It soon became evident that only one side of the problem of child life was being touched upon and, in 1908, a voluntary body, the Child Life Protection Society, was formed in Cape Town. This was followed by the establishment of similar bodies in the other provinces. Concomitantly and in co-operation with this voluntary development, municipalities in the larger centres introduced infant- welfare clinics and visiting-nurses. The movement culminated in 1937 in the passing of the Children's Act. At the same time, with the increasing scope of the activities of the child-welfare societies, the need was felt for some scheme of co-operation between them and this eventually resulted in the formation of the South-African National Council for Child Welfare. The Council consists of representatives of the Union Departments of Social Welfare, Education, Justice, Labour, Public Health, the Mental Hygiene Division of the Department of the Interior, the four Provincial Administrations, the municipalities of a number of the larger cities and the Municipal Associations of each of the four provinces. In addition, professional associations (such as the Federal Council of Teachers) and nationally organised voluntary associations (such as the National Councils for the Blind and the Deaf) are represented, as well as all the child-welfare societies affiliated to the Council. According to its constitution, the Council is organised in the interests of the wrelfare of the children of South Africa, irrespective of race or class, of politics or creed. It exists to deal with all matters of a national character appertaining to the welfare of children, to act as official channel between public authorities and child-welfare societies on matters of national and general child-welfare policy ; to co-ordinate, stimulate and expand child-wrelfare work ; to promote child-wrelfare activities of a national character and to carry on pro­ paganda on a national basis. The Council has, inter alia, appointed nurses to its staff to teach the principles of mothercraft throughout the country. These nurses are lent to local centres, to demonstrate methods or to start local mothercraft and nursing services. In Cape Town, at the Mothercraft Training Centre, es­ tablished under the auspices of the Society for the Protection of Child Life, trained nurses and certified mid wives receive post-graduate courses in mothercraft. The Council also issues The Child-welfare Magazine, a monthly publication which deals with various matters relating to child-welfare interests, and publishes leaflets on local and national child-welfare work. There are ninety-five child-welfare societies affiliated to the Council. Except in the case of a few of the larger of these, the workers are entirely voluntary. Their work covers many phases of child health. Infant and maternity clinics and classes for mothers are carried on in the larger towns chiefly by municipalities, but in many cases they are organised by local child-welfare societies and afterwards taken over by the municipal­ ities. As far as child protection is concerned, all local societies undertake to assist the magistrates in the application of legislation affecting children, including the supervision of protected infants, the visiting of foster children, and the local administration of Govern­ ment maintenance grants under the Children’s Act. The provision and administration of crèches, day nurseries and places of safety form important functions of local societies in some of the larger centres. Preventive work is also undertaken by some of the societies through the establishment of facilities for organised recreation in play centres, children’s libraries, fresh-air camps and clubs. The National Council Head Office receives an annual grant of £300 from the Department and £1,500 for dis­ tribution among child-welfare societies. 2. The Children''s Act, 1937. (a) Commissioners of Child Welfare and Children’s Courts. — The Children’s Act provides for the establish­ ment of Children’s Courts and the appointment of Commissioners of Child Welfare as presiding officers for dealing with cases of children " in need of care ” (a child “ in need of care ” is a child under the age of 19 years who is destitute, neglected or socially maladjus­ ted.) Every magistrate’s court is a Children’s Court and every magistrate a Commissioner of Child Welfare, but in certain centres one of the magisterial staff is specially selected to act as Commissioner. In a few centres, such as Cape Town and Johannesburg, ad hoc Children’s Courts with jurisdiction over several magiste­ rial districts have been established, and here proceedings are entirely dissociated from the adult courts. However, in smaller centres where no such specialised children’s courts exist, special provisions for the dissociation of the Children’s from the Criminal Court apply and the procedure in the case of the former is modified to meet the needs of the child. So, for instance, the Act provides that the Children’s Court shall be held in a room other than that in which any other court generally sits, that only certain persons shall be present at enquiries and that ordinarily the identity of the children concerned in the enquiries shall not be published. — 9 A Commissioner may appoint assessors to sit with him for the purpose of advising him at an enquiry.