{{Short description|Caring occupation in British children's homes}} {{Use British English|date=April 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} '''Housemother''' was a job in British children's homes from the 1940s onwards.<ref name="i529">{{cite book | chapter=Women in residential work: dilemmas and ambiguities| first=Cathy|last=Aymer|editor-last=Day | editor-first=Lesley | editor-last2=Langan | editor-first2=Mary | title=Women, Oppression and Social Work: Issues in Anti-Discriminatory Practice | publisher=Routledge | date=2002 | isbn=978-1-134-90283-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7tKIAgAAQBAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=187}}</ref><ref name="r970">{{cite book | last1=King | first1=Roy D. | last2=Raynes | first2=Norma V. | last3=Tizard | first3=Jack | title=Patterns of Residential Care: Sociological Studies in Institutions for Handicapped Children | publisher=Taylor & Francis | date=27 October 2023 | isbn=978-1-000-96026-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZ_MEAAAQBAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=55}}</ref> Housemothers were responsible for small groups of children living in children's homes.<ref name="o022">{{cite book | last=Smith | first=Mark | title=Rethinking Residential Child Care: Positive Perspectives | publisher=Policy Press | date=25 February 2009 | isbn=978-1-86134-908-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1pfkixtoexAC&pg=PR9 | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=9}}</ref> They lived in the same accommodation as the children, and in the first decades of the role were responsible for children during the night as well as the day.<ref name="p544">{{cite book | last=Elliott|first=Doreen|editor-last=Walton | editor-first=Ronald G. | editor-last2=Elliott | editor-first2=Dorren | chapter=Some Current Issues in Residential Work: Implications for the Social Work Task|title=Residential Care: A Reader in Current Theory and Practice | publisher=Elsevier | date=19 May 2014 | isbn=978-1-4831-8926-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSK0BQAAQBAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=19}}</ref><ref name="x120">{{cite book | last=Kingdom | first=United States Educational Commission in the United | title=Some Impressions of Social Services in Great Britain | publisher=Alcuin Press | date=1956 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1GYiAAAAMAAJ | access-date=16 April 2025}}</ref> They carried out personal care tasks for children, and household chores.<ref name="Pugh">{{cite book | last=Pugh | first=Elisabeth | title=Social Work in Child Care | publisher=Taylor & Francis | date=1968 | isbn=978-1-000-84599-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YnKgEAAAQBAJ | access-date=16 April 2025|quote=The child care officer, as she drives into the night, carries with her a cosy image of the housemother feeding, washing, and putting to bed, and some part of her would like the satisfactions that come from these activities|pages=80–81}}</ref><ref name="u646">{{cite book | last=Vincent | first=Ben | title=Begone Dull Care: An Informal Guide to the Residential Care of Children | publisher=H.M. Stationery Office | date=1968 | isbn=978-0-11-340018-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6gxAQAAIAAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=42}}</ref>

The model of residential care managed by housemothers was established following the Curtis Report in 1946; the small group children's homes set up following this report were sometimes called cottage homes.<ref name="i529"/><ref name="e848">{{cite book | last=Department | first=London County Council Local Government and Statistical | title=London Statistics | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FBLoAAAAIAAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 |date=1960}}</ref> From 1947, there were courses to qualify as a housemother in England and Wales, and in Scotland, such as the Certificate in the Residential Care of Children.<ref name="h283">{{cite book | last1=Skinner | first1=Angus | last2=Scotland | first2=Social Work Services Inspectorate for | title=Another Kind of Home: A Review of Residential Child Care | publisher=H.M. Stationery Office | date=1992 | isbn=978-0-11-494235-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1q7AAAAIAAJ | access-date=16 April 2025 | page=114}}</ref> There were sometimes assistant housemothers too.<ref name="i529"/> Following the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, housemothers were not always required to be on duty at night as well as in the day.<ref name="p544"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Social care in the United Kingdom Category:Child care occupations Category:Community and social services occupations Category:Social care in England and Wales Category:Social care in Scotland

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