Children's case files

For every child that was admitted into The Children's Society's care, there is a case file. These case files detail the individual stories of those children in care and can contain a wealth of medical information.

The case files were created and managed by The Children's Society's head office. They each contain a form that was filled in upon the initial application for help from The Children's Society, along with correspondence that was created or received by the head office once the child had entered The Children's Society's care. Very occasionally, case files also contain a photograph.

Some of the information in the application forms is given in a structured way, but the forms also contain written statements about the individual children and their families, which can often contain some very interesting information. The statement from case file 19917 reads:

[The child] is a nice
bright little girl & has been to the
National School (Day School) &
Sunday School (Church) at Meanwood.
Her parents are were very respectable.
The Father's Consumption was brought
on by several neglected colds after his
Wife went to the Asylum, &
the Consumption was very rapid
indeed. The Mother went to
Menston Asylum in Feb 1915.
She was said to have been run
down since the birth of her
Baby Boy & got into a low- way
spirited way.
The Father was sexton in Meanwood Church for nine years.
[The child] is intelligent & sensible
& affectionate.

(Mrs) Jessie Powys
Meanwood Vicarage
Leeds

From a medical history point of view, one of the most useful items within the case files are the application forms. These forms detail why it was thought that each child needed to go into care and they include information about the child's family circumstances, their living conditions and any illnesses within the family.

Every case file also contains a medical form for the child. These medical forms were filled out by a local doctor as part of the application process to The Children's Society. The forms were used by The Children's Society to determine if the children required any special care or treatment and if they needed to be placed into any particular homes for that purpose.

The medical forms for non-disabled children written before 1911 are fairly short and ask if the child had any specific diseases or if they had received certain vaccinations. From mid-way through 1911 and onwards the forms become longer and more detailed; they contain questions about very specific diseases such as tuberculosis, heart diseases and ringworm, and also state the child's height, weight and girth alongside the child's age. There were different medical forms for disabled children, in which details about the nature of the child's disability could be given.

Once the children had entered The Children's Society's care, further information as to their health was often recorded in their case files. If any child was badly ill or needed to be sent away to hospital or to another home for treatment, this was often detailed in the correspondence kept in the case file.

The letter from case file 6001 forms part of a bundle of correspondence about this child's health. It was known that the child's mother had died of consumption [tuberculosis] and there was a worry that the child had inherited the disease. The letter notes that no expense was being spared in getting medical help for the child.

These few examples show that the case files are a great resource to be studied. They can be used to research the health of individual children and families, but they can also be put together to build a picture of the population as a whole, giving clues as to which diseases and medical treatments were prevalent at certain times.