The Young

1. The Young

2. Why did the Act’s Have to be Passed? • The Provision of Meals Act had to be passed because children were unable to learn due to malnutrition and exhaustion. • Children were drinking and smoking at a young age and were being abused by their parents. Small children were being sent to prison with serious adult offenders. They were having to work in dangerous jobs too. The Children’s Charter was designed to protect children from such problems. • Children were becoming increasingly unhealthy and ill with such problems as rickets, poisoning and defective teeth. Therefore the Medical Inspections Act was passed too diagnose serious contagious illnesses.

3. Education (Provision of Meals) Act • By 1906, just like all the other strong causes of poverty, weak and hungry children was becoming a major issue within Britain. So the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906 was introduced by the Liberals. This enabled local authorities to provide free meals for children if they would like to.

4. Positives and Negatives • By 1914 158,000 were receiving free school meals. • Some children were ensured one nutritious meal a day. • Some local authorities even provided school meals and weekends and during the holidays. • The law said that the local councils were allowed to provide free meals but in principle it did not make them do so. By 1911 less than a third of all education authorities were using rates to support school meal provision. • The councils had to raise the money from their local taxpayers.

5. Children's Act (1908) • Also known as Children and Young Person’s Act, and informally known as the Children’s Charter. • This Act made it a legal and punitive offence for parents to neglect or ill-treat their children. • The act banned the selling of alcohol and tobacco to children under the age of 16, and also made it illegal for children to work in dangerous trades. For example, scrap metal. • Juvenile courts were set up for children to be convicted and they were sent to borstals instead of prisons. • Also introduced the registration of foster parents thus regulating ‘baby farming’ and ‘wet-nursing’ and hopefully reducing ‘infanticide’.

6. Positives and Negatives • Children were now being treated much better overall and children. • For some families, begging had provided a good source of income. • Not all parents abided the rules.

7. Education Act (Administrative Provisions) 1907 • A 1906 report by the Inter-Departmental Committee discovered that Medical inspections of children were only being carried out when children were selected by the teacher and once the inspections had been completed treatment wasn’t given. • This highlighted to the government that the already poor health of the young wasn’t being properly dealt with. • This ‘Medical Inspections’ Act was passed to give school children Medical Inspections. Nurses, Doctors and Medical Officers were employed specifically for this purpose. • They discovered that large proportions of children were malnourished and 9% of children suffered from obscure illnesses such as rickets. • This act only allowed for free school medical inspections once a year and still only treated contagious diseases while other serious health problems went untreated.

8. Positives And Negatives • This law in many ways was a step forward in Britain becoming a Welfare State since it did help in diagnosing ill children all over Britain. • The Inspections also brought about the discovery of some horrific statistics to the government. Opening there eyes wider to the problems of poverty in Britain. • However the government’s main concern remained to be the cost of this operation rather than the effect it had on the health of the public. • Treatment was only given to children with dangerous contagious diseases and therefore many seriously ill children continued in their illness until the School Clinics Act of 1912. • The act also led to The School Clinics Act of 1912 being passed which allowed for treatment to ill children.