[632] Boarding out without the Union Order, 1889, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1889-90, p. 49. The "within the Union Order" contains some modifications for the case where there is no committee.
[633] Circular Letter, 9th December 1905, in Thirty-fifth Annual Report, 1905-6, p. 328.
Foster-parents may never be persons in receipt of relief, or whose only means of support is the allowance made for the children. Children should not, except in special cases, be boarded with relations, nor in any home where the father is employed in night work; foster-parents employed in outdoor work are preferred to those occupied in sedentary labour.[634] They should also (both, in the case of married couples) be of the same religious creed as the child,[635] live within two miles from the school where the child is to attend, and within five miles--preferably three--from the house of some member of the committee. Attention is to be paid to decent accommodation in the homes, and to the separation of the sexes in the sleeping-rooms. Children over seven are not allowed to sleep in the same room with married couples. No child is to be boarded out in a house where sleeping accommodation is afforded to an adult lodger.[636]
[634] Memorandum of the Local Government Board, June 1900. See _Local Government Law and Legislation_, by W. H. Dumsday, 1900, p. 126.
[635] _Local Government Chronicle_, 31st October 1903, p. 1070.
[636] Memorandum of the Local Government Board, June 1900, _Local Government Law and Legislation_, by W. H. Dumsday, 1900, p. 126.
The number of children to be placed in any one home was at first limited to two--or four, if all were brothers and sisters,--but it was soon found that further restrictions were necessary for the prevention of over-crowding. Accordingly, it is ruled that not more than one child may be placed in a home where a child is boarded by any other agency and none where there is more than one such child; no child is to be boarded in a home where, with him, there would be more than five children resident. The clothing provided for a boarded-out child is to be of a good, ordinary character, with no suggestion of a workhouse uniform. The highly expensive but most advantageous service of dentistry may be paid for by the guardians. The Central Authority strongly disapproved of a proposal made to it, under which a child was to be sent out to work, and earn wages, while the full allowance was still being paid by the guardians. "If a boarded-out child is eligible under the Education and Factory Acts for employment, the boarding-out committee should report the case to the guardians, who should obtain the consent of the Local Government Board to any proposal to relieve the child whilst in receipt of regular wages. A foster-parent should not be permitted to allow a child to go to work for wages unless the guardians, with the assent of the Board, have previously assented thereto."[637]