Patterns of care

This chapter describes some of the differences in the patterns of care. In the children’s homes, all the cooking and preparation was undertaken in the cottages by the housemothers and assistants. Most cottages required that children organize themselves to help, either in the preparation of meals or, more frequently, in the setting of tables, washing up and other similar tasks. In the paediatric wards, almost all of the children, except those who also suffered from some degree of subnormality, received some form of education. Most of the children were taught in their wards by visiting teachers from the Local Education Authority, although some children went along to the specially converted school wards for some classes. In any case, the patterns of care were so similar throughout the wards within each hospital that the existence of particular child management practices could not be accounted for by the behaviour or attitudes of individuals.