IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 2180 TCS/F/01
Held at: Children's Society
Title: Children's case files
Date(s): [1882-2013]
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 30,000 files
Name of creator(s): The Children's Society
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Children's Society maintained a case file for each child who was admitted to its care between 1882 and the 1970s.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The Children's Society maintained a case file for each child who was admitted to its care between 1882 and the 1970s. These were created and managed by Head Office. Each case file usually contains the application form for admission to one of The Children's Society's Homes. In addition the file may contain correspondence relating to the child's admission, correspondence relating to work placement(s), health and education reports, correspondence with child's mother/father/relatives, and correspondence with the child after leaving the care of the organisation. Occasionally a photograph may be included.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The series of case files are arranged according to case number, which was allotted to each child admitted to the care of the organisation. They are therefore arranged roughly in order of admission date.
Conditions governing access:
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Finding aids:
The case files for the majority of children who had stayed in The Children's Society's homes for disabled children, and who were born in 1911 or before, have been catalogued. This catalogue can be found on the Hidden Lives Revealed website: http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/including_the_excluded/files/Case%20files%20of%20disabled%20children.pdf
The Accepted Case Registers (TCS/F/09) list the cases in numerical order.The Central Homes Registers (TCS/F/04) are arranged alphabetically by home location and then list children admitted to the home in order of their admission date, from c1905 onwards. Each child's case number is given alongside their name.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The Children's Society
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of copies:
Digital copies of a selection of case files can be found on the Hidden Lives Revealed website: http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/cases
Related material:
The files for children admitted post September 1926 were microfilmed in the 1980s and the originals destroyed. The microfilms are now held by The Children's Society Post Adoption and Care Project. Some post-1926 files were damaged during a flood: a number were destroyed completely, whilst the remnants of a small number are housed at The Children's Society Records and Archive Centre.
From the 1970s case files for children participating in community-based social work projects were created and managed by the relevant project. These are held either by the project or in the records management system by The Children's Society Records and Archive Centre on behalf of the project.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Transcribed by Geoff Browell, August 2013.
Date(s) of descriptions: August 2013