Introduction

THIS study is based on an enquiry undertaken in the autumn of 1958 at the request of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council (now Council for Social Work), one of the two constituent councils of the Church Assembly Board for Social Responsibility. The objectives of the enquiry, as set out at the time, were ‘to examine the scope and character of the work undertaken by the Church of England under the general heading of moral welfare work, to relate it to the developments now taking place whereby statutory authorities (especially local authority health and welfare and children's departments), are taking increasing responsibility for family welfare, and to consider how far the work, as it is carried out at present, is the best response the Church can make to modern needs and conditions, or how far it should be modified or extended.’