| AdminHistory | The Children Act 1908, part of the Liberal government's programme of social reforms, made changes to how the criminal justice system dealt with children by introducing juvenile courts, abolishing the death penalty for children under 16, and making child neglect a criminal offence. It also required that children brought before the courts should have a remand home or similar place of detention to which they could be sent.
Barrow Cadbury took on the task of providing Birmingham with a children's remand home, stating that he 'felt it would be most desirable that any such place should be under the charge of a voluntary organisation and not under an official body.' He and his wife provided the building, fixtures and fittings, and were members of the voluntary committee overseeing the running of the home, which was to be known as the Birmingham Children's Remand Home. The building was constructed throughout 1910, and was officially opened in December 1910, with the first children to be admitted on 2 January 1911. A husband and wife were appointed as warden and matron.
Although the Children’s Remand Home was overseen by a voluntary committee it worked closely with the city council’s Watch Committee, which paid for the upkeep of each child who was in the home. Initially, children were admitted on remand (that is, while waiting for a court appearance) or for transfer, if they were awaiting transfer to an industrial school or reformatory. In the home’s first month of operation 13 boys and one girl spent an average of 7 days each there, five on remand and nine awaiting transfer. By October 1911 the home was full and more beds were bought.
From May 1911 the home also accepted destitute children who were brought in by the police, and who were usually recorded as 'wandering'. These children would usually stay in the home for a very short period of time before being discharged, either to their parents or to one of the children's homes in the city. Later the same year, the Watch Committee agreed that the Children’s Remand Home could be classified as a 'place of safety' under the Children Act, which stated that a child in respect of whom an offence had been committed could be taken to a place of safety by a policeman, or other authorised person, until arrangements could be made for their future care. Thus, from the end of 1911, there were four categories of residents: those on remand, those awaiting transfer to industrial schools, destitute children, and children needing to be in a place of safety. Early registers show that children as young as 18 months spent time at the home under the latter two categories.
In November 1933 the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 came into force. The Act required the council to provide a remand home for children and young people, and in Birmingham the responsibility was delegated to the Education Committee. The running of what was by now known as the Moseley Road Remand Home thus passed to the Education Committee. At this time, the remand home building was divided into two: one half remained a remand home for boys over ten years old, while the other half was used as a boys’ hostel by the Probation Committee. The hostel was intended for the reception of boys on probation who, in the opinion of the Court, should not reside at their homes. (Younger children were accommodated at Summer Hill Homes, and girls had their own hostel in Newton Street.) The number of boys accommodated in the remand home rose sharply around this time, with 74 boys admitted between April and October 1933 and 116 admitted between November 1933 and March 1934. It seems that at least some of this increase was due to increased demand for places from neighbouring local authorities.
The home was evacuated to the Camp School at Bell Heath in 1940, and in 1941 it moved again, to Fircroft College. The home, now known as the Junior Remand Home or Moseley Road Remand Home, reopened in December 1943 to accommodate boys up to the age of 12, the older boys remaining at Fircroft (and after the war, being moved to Forhill House). It appears that girls were also admitted between 1944 and mid-1949, but when the Children’s Committee took over the responsibility for the remand home in 1949 the girls’ function transferred to The Limes, the senior girls’ remand home.
At this time, the residents of the home fell into four categories, subtly different from those of 30 years previously: boys remanded in custody by the courts; boys awaiting a place at an approved school; boys detained for a set period under Section 54 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (i.e. punitive detention); and boys considered to be in need of care and protection, while awaiting more permanent arrangements for their future care. The latter group was unusual, with boys in need of care and protection usually placed in children’s homes.
By the early 1950s remand homes were no longer just a holding facility but were likely to be observing and assessing the children in their care and making reports to the court. The home had its own schoolroom, and reported that in their leisure time the children were taken swimming, to local parks, and on occasion to the cinema.
In 1967 the home, which was now known as Athelstan House, was converted into a reception centre for boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 16. Children were often accommodated for long periods of time, over a year in some cases, often while awaiting a vacancy at a suitable approved school. At this point the remand function of the home was transferred to Forhill House.
On 1 April 1972, under the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act, the home became an observation and assessment centre for boys only. O&A centres were intended to ‘provide facilities on both a residential and a day attendance basis for children remanded or subject to interim orders by the courts, and will advise on the treatment of children in care, so that decisions can be soundly based on the best possible diagnosis of the child’s needs and circumstances.' ['Children in Trouble', Home Office, 1968.]
By 1981 Athelstan House was once again accommodating both girls and boys. In 1982 it became the district centre for the central district of Birmingham, adding an administrative function to its existing residential and day care functions. The CDCC provided reception, placement and management facilities for the 13 other homes in the central district.
In 1988 Athelstan was threatened with closure, but it continued to operate as a residential home until 23 May 2001, when it closed. The building was declared surplus to requirements by the council, and it was sold in 2006.
Administration
The home was originally run by an independent voluntary committee, liaising closely with the city council's Watch Committee. In 1933, under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, it came under the control of the Education Committee, which set up the Remand Home Sub-Committee (BCC 1/BH/14/7) to oversee it. Following the Children Act 1948, responsibility was passed to the new Children’s Committee, where it was under the supervision of the Approved School and Remand Homes Sub-Committee (BCC 1/CT/7). Finally, following the Local Authority Social Services Act, 1970, responsibility for Athelstan House passed to the new Social Services Committee (BCC 1/DJ). |