In 1887 following the proclamation of the Neglected Children’s Act 1887 (No.941) and The Juvenile Offenders’ Act (No.951) responsibility for ‘neglected’ children was transferred from the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools, to a Department for Neglected Children. A Department for Reformatory Schools assumed responsibility for convicted juveniles. This legislation is evidence of changing ideas…
The passing of the Infant Life Protection Act 1907 (No.2102) was partly in response to concerns about ‘baby farming’. The Act required parents to register voluntary foster placements with the Neglected Children’s Department and pay for the upkeep of the child or risk the child becoming a ward of the state. Registered carers also became…
Under the terms of Children’s Maintenance Act 1919, No. 3001, mothers without sufficient means of support could apply to the Department of Neglected Children for financial assistance toward the maintenance of their children, rather than have the children committed to the Department’s care. This change was a means of regularising the practice, recently ruled unlawful,…
The Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act 1864 (No.216) was the first piece of Victorian legislation to define situations where children might be removed from their parents. The Act provided for the establishment of industrial schools for ‘neglected’ children and reformatory schools for convicted juveniles. Superintendents and matrons were to be appointed and provision was made…
The Juvenile Offenders’ Act (No.951) transferred responsibility for convicted juveniles from the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools to a Department for Reformatory Schools. This Act allowed for the establishment of Probationary Schools, described by the Department’s Secretary as ‘intermediate between the reformatory and the foster-home’. After the act was passed, a number of young…
The Social Welfare Act 1970 (No.8089) created a new position in the Victorian government, the Minister for Social Welfare. In 1971, the Social Welfare Department was established, taking over responsibility for all functions previously administered by the Social Welfare Branch. In 1978, the Community Welfare Services Act provided that the title of the Social Welfare…
The Social Welfare Act 1960 (No.6651) was proclaimed in stages from 1960. The sections concerned with family and child welfare did not become operative until June 1961. The Act established the Social Welfare Branch within the Chief Secretary’s Department. The Social Welfare Branch assumed responsibility for all functions previously administered by the Children’s Welfare Department…
The Children’s Welfare Act 1924 (No.3351), assented to on 1 October 1924, was enacted to rename the Department for Neglected Children as the Children’s Welfare Department. The renaming of the Department signified the Government’s awareness of the stigma which had become attached to the term ‘neglected child’, and did not reflect a change in functional…
The Adoption of Children Act 1928, ‘An Act to make provision for the Adoption of infants’ (No.3605) became law in July 1929 and the first legal adoption in Victoria was registered in October of that year. Before that time unofficial, de facto adoptions, which were not recognised in law, were sometimes arranged by both Government…
The Children’s Welfare Act 1954 (No. 5817) came into operation on 1 September 1955. It contained some significant changes to the Victorian system. It gave the government the power to establish its own institutions for the care of children and for the detention of young offenders. Non-government children’s institutions were required to be registered with…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
