ABSTRACT
The 1948 Children Act created a Local Authority Children’s Service for the specific purpose of caring for children who, either permanently or temporarily, were deprived of a normal home life. The last major category of children in residential care comprised those who are mentally or physically handicapped to such a degree that they cannot be accommodated in residential special schools. It is difficult to give the total numbers in this group because of the inadequacy of officially published statistics, but it is probable that in 1963 there were between 15,000 and 19,000 such children. With changes in the organization of residential care for children have come changes in its nature. The family pattern of care was to be achieved by placing a child at the earliest possible age in a small group of children of various ages and both sexes, under the care of a trained and sympathetic housemother, or housemother and housefather.
