ABSTRACT

The welfare of children in hospital is an interesting and revealing topic to examine in relation to social policy and child welfare since it raises in an undisguised form professional attitudes towards children’s emotional contentment, which perhaps can be described more simply as their happiness. It was in the 1920s that paediatric work began to develop in hospitals, and under the influence of the child guidance clinics a new consciousness of the importance of children’s emotional security soon emerged, although it was not until the 1940s that the issue of their welfare in hospital first assumed any kind of prominence. The Curtis Report (1946) on the care of deprived children highlighted the importance of a secure and loving environment, and no doubt this impressed itself upon progressive medical personnel. Moreover, the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, in making hospital treatment available to an ever increasing number of children, underlined the need for a more sensitive policy with regard to their residential needs.