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The Under-Secretary was in charge of the Chief Secretary's Department.
Between 1898 and 1911, the Neglected Children's Department and the Charitable Grants Departments were sub-departments within the Chief Secretary's Department. In 1911-12, the Under-Secretary took direct control of the two sub-departments. This meant that between 1914 and 1918, the Under-Secretary ran the Neglected Children's Department. With the assistance of clerks, he decided on state wards' placements, negotiated with their parents, foster parents, and employers, and wrote to the children personally. When the Neglected Children's Department became the Children of the State Department in 1918, it remained in the Chief Secretary's Department and Premier's Office but with its own Secretary. In 1923-4, Charitable Grants became a Department in its own right. It contained the Children of the State Department.
The close relationship between the Chief Secretary's Department and Premier's Office, the Neglected Children's Department, and the Charitable Grants Department means that there is considerable information about the last two in the records of the Chief Secretary's Department.
