Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    328/552 (page 296)
    PINANCE. Chapter XL. Accounts of asyluma and audit. Clare, Vol. IV., 3.3G97. Clare, Vol. IV., 33698. Clare, Vol. IV., 33699. Davy, Vol. IV., ]). 350, col. 1, 34222. Kershaw, Vol. IV., 32135. Kershaw, Vol. IV., 32126-32135, 32129. Tunbridge Wells Improvement Act 1890, Sec. 272. Plymouth Corporation Act, 1904, Sec. 6. Poole Extension Order, 1905. Article XI. liecommendation XCTV. Recommendation XXIII. Payments by Kelatives. Recommendation XCIII. Davy, Vol. I 34222. Grants Subject to Certificate of tbr Board of Control Recom nend tion XLI. account items tvliicli otlier asylums charge to their maintenance account. Another witness points out that “asylums in wliich the conditions cannot be very substantially different, spend on maintenance a difference probably between 9s. and 12s. or 13s. a week.” This should be explained, he urges. The visiting committee should also be asked to show their specifications for tenders and other contract prices. The Commissioners, “ if they found that in one asylum they were spending 4d. a pound for meat on an average, and in another 3d.,” should investigate the matter. “ Even in LancashiVe, where the asylums are all under one board, owing to the fact that each visiting committee have their own contracts, the variation in the price, although not very great, represents on the whole several thousands a year.” The Lan- cashire Board was now considering “ whether it would not be in the interest of the ratepayers as a whole that they should have a central committee to invite tenders and accept contracts.” 851. The accounts of the visiting committees are subject to audit by the district auditors of the Local Government Board (Lunacy Act, 1891, Sec. 18), which we think should be as full and complete as possible ; and the accounts of each asylum are included in the Local Taxation Eeturns, but there is no audit of borough accounts and stores. “ So far as the boroughs are concerned, the greater jDart of the control and maintenance of lunacy in those places is beyond any sort of independent control,” unless a special clause has been inserted in a local Act by wliicli the audit is thrown on the auditors of the Local Government Board. We are of opinion that, in the interests of economical and sati.sfactory management, the accounts of boroughs relating to the care and control of the mentally defective, including the accounts of asylums, should be audited by the Local Government Board Auditor, and that the specification for tenders and the contract prices should be examined by the members of the Board of Control or be investigated by the Auditor of the Local Government Board on their behalf and form part of his report to the Board. The reports of auditors should also, in our opinion, be communicated to the Board of Control and the Home Ofl&ce. In any circumstances, we think that economy of management in asylums should be a question considered and reported upon by the Board from year to year in their annual report. 852. We have dwelt on the necessity of enforcing from relatives contri- butions for the maintenance of mentally defective persons in public asylums or elsewliere under public care and control. We are of opinion that continuous attention should be paid to this subject and very careful inquiry made, so as to prevent tliose who could afford to support their relatives wholly or in part leaving them to be maintained at the public charge. The principles on which these contributions should be enforced, remitted, or suspended ought, we think, to be laid down and enforced by the regulations of the Board of Control. The amount raised in this way from year to year should be definitely and sufficiently stated in the accounts of the asylums, so that the public may be able to judge whether adequate attention is paid to the subject, and the question should be equally considered by the proposed committees in the case of mentally defective persons who are dealt with otherwise than in asylums and hospitals. 853. In these and in other matters, to strengthen .the hands of the Board of Control we suggest, in Recommendation XLI., that the grant paid from the Exchequer to the local authorities should be payable “ subject to the certificate of the Board of Control.”