The Children’s Society’s Medical History project continues with further funding from Wellcome Trust

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Janine Stanford

I have good news to bring you today. Our Unexplored Riches in Medical History project has received a second grant of £102,309 from the Wellcome Trust’s Research Resources scheme.

The project, now in its second year, has been making great advances in cataloguing and conserving the records of the residential homes that The Children’s Society ran for almost 100 years up until the 1970s and the case files of the children who stayed in them.

In particular we’re focusing on the wealth of information about child health and the effects of poverty contained in these records. This will help to shed light on the history of childhood diseases, treatments, medical care and social health in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the first part of the project, we’ve found that before the establishment of the NHS, many families had to seek help from charities such as The Children’s Society as they couldn’t give their children vital medical treatment, and some families were pushed into poverty directly because of medical costs.

Historically, The Children’s Society helped to provide medical treatment for these families, and the records shed light on the experiences of children with diseases such as tuberculosis, rickets, pneumonia and heart conditions among others.

By creating an online archive catalogue and through conservation work the records will be widely accessible to medical, social and academic researchers the post-care community and the general public among others.

Thanks to the recent grant from the Wellcome Trust, which takes the current total funding from the Trust to £211,124, we can build on what has already been completed. Through the project, we will be able to open up access to The Children’s Society’s valuable records and promote important research into medical history, social history, and the history of childhood poverty and neglect.

UPDATE: This information has now been posted on the Wellcome Trust’s website.

Monitoring children’s health in nurseries

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Janine Stanford

Some of The Children’s Society’s children’s homes in the late-20th Century, particularly nurseries looking after young children, kept daily and nightly log books.

These books were kept to monitor the health of the children in the home. Generally, entries were made each day and each night by one of the members of staff on duty. Because the entries are so regular, they provide very detailed information about the health of the children and can be used to follow the effectiveness of any treatments given for injuries or illnesses.

The following image comes from the day and night log book for Sunnyside Nursery for Disabled Children, Box, Wiltshire.

[Names of two children] } seen by speech therapist
all other children appear satisfactory
Staff 11
[Staff name]

16-3-74
Night Report
Everyone slept well.
[Staff name]

16.3.74
Day Report
Children 19
[Child’s name],
Had fall on drive. Bruising and minor abrasions
on head.
All other children appear satisfactory
Staff 14
[Staff name]

17-3-74
Night Report
[Child’s name] – Awake crying, very chesty
settled after having drink and
cuddle.
[Names of two children] } Both awake fretful for long intervals
during the night
Remaining children slept well.
[Staff name]

17.3.74
Day Report
Children 19
All children appear satisfactory
Staff 13
[Staff name]

Sunnyside Nursery first opened in 1930 as the Holy Innocents Home, with residents transferred to the new home from the recently closed Admiral and Mrs Arden Close Memorial Home for Girls, Bristol. The home started taking on younger children in the 1930s and was known as Sunnyside Nursery from 1949 onwards.

It was in 1971 that Sunnyside Nursery started looking after disabled children; this was partly due to its location, as there were specialist hospitals and clinics in the local area. Initially, Sunnyside still functioned as a nursery, but in the late-1970s and the 1980s, Sunnyside started helping older children and young people with disabilities too.

An older medical book from Sunnyside Nursery, Box, was discussed in an earlier post about treatments for winter colds in the 1940s.

It would be interesting to compare the 1940s medical book with the 1970s day and night log book: Had instances of and treatments of diseases changed in the intervening decades? And did the medical provision for Sunnyside change when it started looking after disabled children?

(The above book contains information about living individuals and so some access restrictions will apply. For anyone wishing to access the volume, please contact us for further information.)

A visit to Lambeth Palace

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Janine Stanford

Last week as a thank you to our project volunteers, many of whom have now been with us for six months, we went on a trip to Lambeth Palace Library and Archive.

The staff at Lambeth Palace Library very kindly gave us a tour of the Palace and told us about the work they do. We heard about the history of Lambeth Palace and the history of its Library, both of which are very interesting.

The tour took us behind the scenes to the Library’s conservation studio and store rooms. We also had a look at the exhibitions in the Great Hall, including some volumes that have recently been conserved; the most unusual being a book about the types of beer found in Yorkshire!

Finally, we were given a tour of the gardens at Lambeth Palace, which were lovely, especially given the sunshine we’ve been having in London recently.

Many thanks to Lambeth Palace Library for a great afternoon, and many thanks to our volunteers for their help with this project!

For more information about Lambeth Palace Library, please see their website.

Treatments for bad winter colds in 1940

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Janine Stanford

For some children’s homes we are lucky to have a surviving medical book. These books allow you to follow the progress of the health of the children in the home over a set period of time, which makes them a great way of researching instances of diseases and medical conditions and finding out how they were treated.

It appears that the medical books were kept by the medical officers for each of the children’s homes, with the medical officer making a note in the book each time they were called in examine a child.

The following image is an entry from the medical book for Sunnyside Nursery in Box, Wiltshire, from December 1940.

15.12.40. All children have influenzal colds – all with
temperature above 99º to have 693. 1/4 Tablet 6 hourly.

16.12.40. Children better.

18.12.40. Colds better.

21.12.40 All children still in bed but better.

23.12.40 Children better. M.M..

30.12.40 Children Better.

While some medical conditions were specific to some children, the way the book is set out makes it easy to note outbreaks of diseases throughout the nursery too. Here we can see that in mid-December 1940, all the children in Sunnyside Nursery came down with flu-like colds.

The children here were treated with 693 (also called sulphapyridine), which was a widely-used medicine at the time. From this distance, it is not possible to tell if the medicine was effective, but what the record does show is that the children all got better over the next two weeks. Hopefully they were well enough to enjoy their Christmas celebrations. Certainly no mention of the colds are made after the end of December.

This is just one page from the book. If we studied the rest of the book, it could well bring up some interesting information: Were there any other instances of influenza or flu-like colds? Were there any other outbreaks of diseases that affected all the children in the nursery? And was 693 used to treat any other medical conditions? Putting this information together could help to build up a detailed picture of medical care in the 1940s.

(The above book contains information about living individuals and so some access restrictions will apply. For anyone wishing to access the volume, please contact us for further information.)

Ophthalmia and treatment at the Royal Westminster Eye Hospital

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Janine Stanford

The case file for a girl named Ethel (case number 5450) is one that gives us information about turn-of-the-century treatments for ophthalmia, which is an inflammation of the eye.

Born in London, Ethel’s early family life had not been a happy one as her father was said to have ill-treated her mother. Her father then left the family shortly after Ethel’s younger brother, Ernest, was born and was not heard from again. Ethel at this time was one year old. It was 1894.

Things were not easy in the late-19th Century for a single mother trying to raise a young family by herself. Ethel’s mother found work in domestic service as a cook in Holloway, London. She was earning £18 per year, which was not enough for her to support two children. And so, with the help of money from a relative, Ethel had gone to live with a tailor and his family in Surbiton, Surrey, leaving Ethel’s mother to look after Ernest.

Unfortunately, the relative paying for Ethel’s upkeep was on a low wage and in 1896 she could no longer afford to pay any more money. It was at this point that an application was made to The Children’s Society (then known as the Waifs and Strays Society), who agreed to help.

In August 1896, at the age of three, Ethel was taken into The Society’s Receiving Home in Byfleet, Surrey. After a short stay there, Ethel went to live with a foster family in Clapham, Surrey.

Ethel’s new foster-parents were already fostering a boy when they took Ethel in, but Ethel wasn’t to stay there for long. Only a week and a half after she arrived, it was discovered that Ethel was suffering from an inflammation of the eye, or ophthalmia. The condition was clearly contagious as it had been caught by Ethel’s foster-brother in this short space of time.

Quickly, Ethel was sent back to the home in Byfleet where she could be seen by a doctor. The result of the examination is detailed in the letter below (where she is referred to as Edith by mistake).

Dear Mr Jackson

I sent Edith
[surname] to ~~the~~ our doctor at
Weybridge for his opinion
& he says she has opthal-
mia badly & must not
mix with any of our

children. And she should
be sent to-morrow to an
Opthalmic Hospital.

I have told Mr Neat
who has brought [other children]
and I have ar-
ranged with him to
meet her at to Waterloo
& take her to the Op.
Hospital. I will send her
by the train ar. at Water –
10.59 – & he will go to the
Office for instructions

yrs very truly
L. Carr

Ethel was taken to the Royal Westminster Eye Hospital in London. After staying there for almost two weeks, she was doing well and was discharged. Due to the contagious nature of the disease, it was recommended that Ethel should be kept separate from other children for a further few weeks.

It was decided that it would be best for Ethel’s health if she left London and went to live in the countryside. Therefore, she was sent to a foster home in Knebworth, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire.

Sadly, we find that in 1898, when Ethel was then five years old, she began to suffer from ophthalmia again. She was taken to hospital in London to be examined and her foster-mother was told that Ethel would need to return to the hospital once every fortnight for treatment. As Ethel’s foster-mother couldn’t afford to take her to London so frequently, Ethel was instead transferred to St Hilda’s Home in Marylebone, London.

Presumably Ethel’s treatment was successful although there are no letters about it in her case file. She stayed in the Marylebone home until 1900 when she was 7 years old. At this point she was returned to the care of her mother, who was living near Euston Station in London. Even though Ethel’s mother was likely still working in domestic service, her letter makes it clear that she missed her daughter and wanted to have her home.

We don’t know if Ethel ever went to hospital with ophthalmia again. As ophthalmia, being an inflammation of the eye, could be caused by a number of conditions, it is not possible to tell what exactly Ethel was suffering from. What we do know is that the disease was contagious, could recur after a number of years, and was serious enough to require frequent hospital treatment. If you have any idea as to what could have caused Ethel’s ophthalmia, please tell me; I’d be interested to know!

Caring for a child with a hernia

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Janine Stanford

Harry was 9 years old when he entered the care of The Children’s Society (then known as the Waifs and Strays Society) in 1903. The application for him to go into care, found within Harry’s case file, gives us information about his family.

Harry’s father had died of typhoid fever when Harry was 7 years old. Since then, Harry and his two younger brothers had been looked after by their mother in Easingwold in Yorkshire. Harry’s mother suffered from a heart condition which left her unable to work. She received money for the family from the local Board of Guardians, but her poor health meant that she found it very difficult to look after her children despite this. It was decided, therefore, that Harry as the eldest son should be taken into foster care.

The application form states that Harry, at 9 years old, was himself suffering from a ‘rupture of the bowels’. In later correspondence we find that this was an inguinal hernia; these are hernias in the groin and are one of the most common types of hernia found.

Harry’s application to go into care was accepted. He was taken into Islington Home for Boys for four and a half months and then sent out to a foster home in Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire.

In 1904, a letter from Harry’s mother reveals that Harry wore a truss to support his hernia and that it had broken. This had caused Harry’s mother to ask for Harry to be returned to her, but on finding that the Board of Guardians had threatened stop their financial aid if he returned, Harry’s mother agreed for Harry to stay in care.

Foster homes were inspected regularly by The Society to ensure that the children were well cared for. An inspection carried out at Harry’s foster home, shortly after the date of the letter from Harry’s mother, reveals the same information: the truss that Harry wore for his hernia was nearly worn out. The doctor inspecting the home suggested that Harry’s hernia should be treated with surgery, as can be seen in the letter below.

After gaining consent from his mother, Harry was returned to Islington Home for Boys in the summer of 1904 and from there he went to Charing Cross Hospital. At the hospital Harry underwent an operation for his hernia and was described as ‘doing well’ a few days later. Then, three weeks after first being admitted to hospital, Harry returned to Islington Home for Boys. It was recommended that on his return, Harry was to ‘keep a prone position’ for three more weeks.

As Harry was now nearly 11 years old, it was considered that he was too old to return to his foster home in Sawbridgeworth. And so, after two months spent recovering from his operation in Islington, Harry was transferred to St Andrew’s Home for Boys in Reading.

The next we hear of Harry is in 1907, when The Society opened St Boniface’s Home for Boys in Sampford Peverell, Devon. The master of St Andrew’s Home in Reading transferred to this new home in Sampford Peverell and we find that Harry (and presumably a number of other boys) had transferred to the new home with him.

Around this time, with Harry soon to turn 14, another letter was received from Harry’s mother, asking for him to be returned to her in Easingwold. With one of Harry’s brothers at school and the other about to leave home, Harry’s mother was anxious that she would be left with no-one to care for her in her illness or to earn any money. Further correspondence in the file reveals that it was decided not to return Harry to his mother; no work could be found for him in Easingwold except for casual labour and it was thought that it would be best for Harry to go to a permanent job elsewhere.

And so instead, in 1908, Harry went to work in domestic service at St Mary’s in the Scilly Isles. Harry worked there for a year an a half until we hear from Harry’s mother again. She had since remarried but was worried for Harry as he had written to her complaining of being unhappy in his job and wanting to go to work at sea. Further correspondence suggests that Harry was persuaded to give his current job another chance.

It appears, however, that Harry continued to be unsettled in his job and in 1910, after working for two years, he returned to St Boniface’s Home in Sampford Peverell. Harry still wished to go to work at sea and so, after one month in the home, Harry returned to his family in Easingwold while the staff at the home attempted to find him work on a ship.

Surprisingly, we don’t hear anything further about Harry until 1911 when he was 18 years old. In this year he writes a letter back to St Boniface’s Home stating that he has not gone to sea but has instead stayed near his family, and has been working on a farm near Easingwold for the past year. It is clear from the letter that Harry remembers his time at St Boniface’s Home with affection. This, unfortunately, is the last we hear of him. Whether Harry remained on the farm and what happened to him from then onwards is unknown.

This case file is interesting on two counts. Firstly, it tells us how hernias were treated over 100 years ago, with the two treatments given to Harry, being a truss and surgery, still used to treat hernias today. It is worth noting that Harry was kept in hospital for nearly three weeks after his operation; far longer you might expect to stay in hospital these days. This may reflect on the differences in surgery techniques over the years as well as changes to the way hospitals operate.

The other interesting part of the story lies with Harry’s mother. From the correspondence in the file we see that Harry’s mother, and her requests for her son to return home, were considered an unsettling influence on Harry. For the staff of The Society, what they wanted was to ensure that Harry had a bright future with a stable job; they didn’t want Harry to return to Easingwold unless there was a job there for him to go to.

Looking at things from Harry’s mother’s point of view, we get a glimpse of what it was like for a single parent living with a long-term illness in the early 20th Century. Despite the money Harry’s mother was receiving from the Board of Guardians, it appears to have been hard for her, without a carer, to look after herself and the two children she had remaining with her. Reading her letters, it’s easy to see the conflict she feels between trying to do the best for Harry’s future while wanting him to return home to help with the family.

This case file, then, appears to have a happy ending. Harry, no longer encumbered by his hernia, was eventually able to find a job close to his family. Whether things remained as bright for Harry in the years afterwards is something that only further research will tell.

Our volunteers in their own words

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Janine Stanford

The Unexplored Riches in Medical History project is currently being supported by eight enthusiastic volunteers who kindly give their time to help conserve and preserve the oldest and most delicate of the children’s case files.

Click here to read more about the case file conservation process.

In today’s post, several of the volunteers explain what it is like to volunteer here at The Children’s Society archive and tell us more about what they’ve been doing.

‘The first part of the job is removing the case file contents from their pale blue linen envelope – sometimes, they are so tightly packed this can be a bit of a struggle.’

‘Once the items have been removed, I clean them with a chemical sponge and a soft brush, place them in between clean blotter and retain the original order of the items as found.’

‘Whilst cleaning I inspect for damaging materials such as metal paper clips or rubber bands as well as unstable documents such as acidic, brittle paper and torn postcards.’

‘Any document that is in a bad condition and cannot be flattened or is badly torn may be humidified or repaired.’

‘Each item is then flattened under weights for a few days, before being packed into a new file folder, tied with cotton ribbon and boxed.’

When asked what they enjoyed most about volunteering, many of the volunteers agreed that the highlight was the case files themselves.

‘[I enjoy] getting a feel for some of the cases and the individuals involved, with some fascinating insights into social history.’

‘I find the case files fascinating to work on. […] They are only individual peeks in to a wealth of an archive, but it has inspired me to look in to my own family history.’

‘The most exciting part of working with case files must be removing the items from the envelope, because you will never find a repeat one and each of them contains a different story.’

‘There is a great satisfaction in knowing you have helped preserve somebody’s history as well as making a small contribution to the cleaning of such a vast amount of case files and making them accessible.’

‘The most rewarding aspect is probably the sense of achievement that comes from knowing that the case files are now going to survive for much longer thanks to the preservation and conservation work that we’re doing. And knowing that in the future researchers will be able to access the information the files hold much more easily is very satisfying.’

It’s not always easy though. The delicate condition of some of the case files often poses problems.

‘[The most difficult part is] avoiding tearing documents when cleaning.’

‘Personally, I find handling and cleaning the variety of different types of paper quite challenging, as it requires different levels of accuracy with the cleaning sponges and you could lead to damaging the works more.’

‘[The most challenging part] must be to clean some documents which are of poor condition.’

‘I find the assessment of a document the most testing. For example, if I miscalculate the stability of a papered document and put it under the strain of pressing, the piece could split and cause irreversible damage.’

Despite the challenges posed by the fragile state of some of the documents, the project is progressing well, thanks to the help of our volunteers.

The team of volunteers is a varied one, with some currently studying for courses in paper conservation, some retired, and some wanting archive experience. This means that they each have different skills and interests that they can bring to the project.

‘[My motivation for volunteering here was] a combination of wanting to contribute to a worthwhile organisation and looking for a new experience with social contact.’

‘Volunteering is an important asset for a conservator, as through this experience you are allowed to observe and work with people of our profession and more, develop old and new skills, as well as learn new techniques.’

‘To work alongside professionals at such close quarters is an important aspect for my development as a paper conservator.’

‘Because the tasks that I’ve been doing as a volunteer were so well defined I was able to start doing useful work right from the very first day. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful. Also, knowing that I’m going on to study archives, everyone has taken the time to explain more about what they do, which has been great.’

‘It’s been a really great learning experience. I’ve learnt more about how to handle documents correctly, about preservation problems and conservation techniques, and also started to get a feel for how the archives and records fit within the organisation.’

I would like to take the time to say thank you to all our volunteers, not only for their help with the case files, but also for kindly answering my questions for this post.

Here in the archive we’re lucky to have the dual benefit of eight extra hands to help preserve our important case files for the future, plus eight friendly people to help to make the office a brighter place!

Detecting and preventing tuberculosis

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Janine Stanford

As seen in the previous post about John who died at the age of ten tuberculosis was a very prominent disease in the early-20th Century. John died in 1905 when there was very little that could be done to combat the disease. The letter below, from November 1950, shows how things had changed in the intervening years.

The letter was sent from one of The Children’s Society’s homes, HRH Princess Christian’s Training College and Infant Nursery, Windsor, and discusses how staff at the nursery were caring for children who had been in contact with people suffering from tuberculosis.

In this case, there were two children in the nursery whose mothers had tuberculosis. As the disease is so infectious, the children needed extra monitoring to see if they had contracted it. This highlights the fact that cases of tuberculosis were still very common in 1950, enough that specific procedures had to be put in place for those that had come into contact with the disease.

On reading the letter we can see that the children were monitored for tuberculosis by undergoing a patch test every three months. It also states that if the children were going to be returned to their parents, they should be vaccinated against the disease with the BCG (Bacille de Calmette et Guérin) vaccine. This represents a major development: in 1950, not only could tuberculosis be easily tested for, but it could be prevented through vaccination; a far cry from the ineffective preventative measures and treatments available in John’s day.

The letter comes from a medical file for HRH Princess Christian’s Training College. Similar medical files exist for a number of The Children’s Society’s children’s homes. These files generally contain correspondence about the work of the medical officers for the homes, so they detail the routine of medical tests and check-ups carried out for the children in the homes as well as containing information about a variety of other treatments, tests and diseases.

Tuberculosis and child mortality

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Janine Stanford

Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending. Today’s post is about a child named John (case number 9825), who died of tuberculosis at the age of ten.

John came from Lambeth in South London. He was an orphan. John’s father had died when John was five years old and John’s mother had died when John was eight; both had succumbed to tuberculosis. This left John in the care of his grandmother, a retired school teacher who appeared to have little money to look after him, and so, shortly after the death of his mother, application was made for John to enter the care of The Children’s Society (then known as the Waifs and Strays Society).

In 1903, John (aged eight) and his brother Reginald (aged six) entered a receiving home in Byfleet, Surrey, and were quickly transferred to Messing Cottage Home in Kelvedon, Essex.

Looking through John’s case file, the next we hear of him is in April 1905. A letter from the Messing Home states that John had been ‘ailing’ and that he had been treated with cod liver oil. Further letters say that John had been under the care of a doctor and was staying in a foster home nearby; this was presumably to quarantine him from the other children in the Messing Home to prevent any disease from spreading.

It was thought best for John to be transferred to the Waifs and Strays Society’s Nayworth Cottage Home in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. This home was a convalescent home on the South Coast and it was hoped that the change in atmosphere and the extra care John would receive there would help him to recover.

When John arrived at the Nayworth Home in May 1905, he was described as being ‘undoubtedly tubercular, he has a bad cough & seems very weak & emaciated‘. He was prescribed port wine, brandy and ‘a very generous diet‘ in the hopes of building up his strength. We also learn that the Matron of the home had taken it upon herself to nurse him.

Unfortunately, John continued to get worse and in July 1905 there is the following letter:

Nayworth Home.
Hurstpierpoint.
July. 13th. 1905.

Rev. & Dear Sir.
I am sorry to tell you that
John [surname] is in a very serious
condition, & the doctor has
just told me that I might
expect a change within the
next twenty four hours.
He might rally for a few

days, but I hardly expect it.
Everything possible has been
done for him. The poor child
is now in a very prostrate
state.
Dr Meyer is from home but
his locum. has been most
attentive
I am, yours faithfully.
Elsie P. Smith.

The next item in the case file is a telegram from the Nayworth Home, 14 July 1905, saying that John died at 10:30 that morning. He was ten years old.

A further death certificate confirms that John died of phthisis (an old term for tuberculosis) and the remaining correspondence in the file relates to arrangements for his funeral.

John’s story is sad but was not, I am sorry to say, an uncommon one. The number of children suffering from tuberculosis was high in the early 20th Century, and prior to the discovery of antibiotics to combat it, the disease was often fatal. Of all the case files catalogued so far, 347 relate to children who had tuberculosis, and 133 of those children died while in the care of the Waifs and Strays Society. Doubtless more instances of tuberculosis will appear as more case files are catalogued.

The large amount of case files that mention the disease means that they make a very valuable source for research. It would be worth looking to see how the different cases compare with each other. Did children with tuberculosis often come from families where the parents had died of the disease, as had John’s, and was this related to their living conditions? How did different treatments for the disease compare with each other? In 1905, it was thought best to give John cod liver oil, port wine, brandy, a good diet, and fresh sea air. Would these still be prescribed in earlier or later cases? A study of the case files could reveal the answer.

Homes for diabetic children

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Janine Stanford

It was in 1948 that The Children’s Society started to look after children with diabetes. Before that date, without any specialist staff or equipment, The Children’s Society simply hadn’t been able to take any diabetic children into its homes.

Everything changed in 1948 when St Monica’s Home for Diabetic Children, Kingsdown, near Deal in Kent, opened. The home had trained staff who were able to give the children the medical care they needed and teach them how to administer their own insulin.

Below is an extract from The Children’s Society’s Bulletins in October 1948, giving more information about the imminent opening of St Monica’s Home.

On reading the extract it appears that there was a high demand for children’s homes that could care for children with diabetes. One of the reasons for opening the home was to reduce the number of fatalities that came from diabetic children not having access to the medical care they needed.

Demand for children’s homes for diabetic children was so high that The Children’s Society opened two others shortly afterwards: St George’s Home in Kersal, Manchester, was converted into a home for diabetic children in 1949 and Carruthers Corfield House Home for Diabetic Children in Rustington, Sussex, opened in 1951.

The Bulletins that the above extract came from were regular newsletters created by The Children’s Society’s head office and sent out to its children’s homes. These Bulletins contained important news about the work of The Children’s Society and included information and policies about how the children’s homes should be run.

Some of the Bulletins include medical information, such as the necessity of providing children with certain vaccinations, procedures to be carried out during outbreaks of diseases in the homes, and guidance on the diets to be given to the children. This makes the Bulletins a useful resource for studying The Children’s Society’s policies on various medical issues.

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