(g) No Follow-up Procedure
When children are placed "under supervision" there is not any procedure whereby reports are submitted to the Court or other body concerning their welfare or their doings. Again, when children are committed to the care of the State or are under supervision as a result of delinquency they may lawfully be transferred from one institution to another or may be boarded out in foster-homes without any intimation being made to their own parents. If a child is boarded out in another district it may be enrolled at a school without the principal being given such information as might enable him to be of assistance in its reclamation.
The Committee feels that there should be some person or body apart from the departmental officers to whom a child could turn for help if it is unhappy in its new surroundings or feels that it is not being properly treated.
(5) Changes Proposed
In the foregoing subsections it was sought to show how it came about that the statute itself is not a completely satisfactory one. Some of its provisions were adapted from earlier statutes which dealt with "neglected" and "criminal" children, and "industrial schools".
In the course of the history of the legislation the age of a "child" has been progressively raised from 14 to 15, to 16, to 17, and to 18 years. Many of those dealt with would scorn to be regarded as "children" in the outside world, but they are glad to have the advantages accruing from being dealt with in a Children's Court.
It is pleasing to know that some officers of the Division are concentrating upon preventive work, but just where, and how such work is being done, and the effect of it cannot be measured.
The Committee makes the following recommendations for amendments to the existing legislation:
(a) The Creation of a New Offence under which children of either sex who are guilty of indecent behaviour may be charged as "delinquents" in lieu of the present procedure under which the boy must necessarily be charged and gazetted as a criminal while the girl is not charged at all.
A suitable amending clause would be: