VPRS 10071 State Ward Case Files, all Wards (to June 1961); Family Welfare Division Ward Case Files (July 1961-1978), Single Number System

This series consists of files about individuals who were brought under the care of the State either to ensure their protection, or to punish and rehabilitate them in response to crimes committed. These functions of Government date back to the proclamation of the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act 1864. At that time, the children requiring protective action were called neglected children and those requiring punishment were referred to as convicted children. The more general term, wards (as in the term "wards of the State"), to describe all of these children, was introduced in 1887. A host of legislative changes over the 100 or so years after the 1864 Act impacted upon these functions. Broadly speaking, the key changes were; For Neglected Children - were deemed to be neglected by a justice until 1907 and the Children's Court thereafter. - related to children under 15 years of age to 1887; under 17 years (1887-1915), and under 21 years from 1915. - could be placed by the Department in Government Industrial Schools (until 1880 only), approved private institutions, boarded out or put at service with a suitable individual within the community, or apprenticed to a trade at land or at sea. - became known as Children in need of care and protection in 1954. For Convicted Children - were those found guilty of any offence by a justice until 1907 and the Children's Court thereafter, and were aged under 15 years of age (1864 - 1887) and under 17 years from 1887. - could be placed by the Department in Government Reformatory Schools (until the late 1890s only), private reformatories (from 1887 provided they were over 12 years of age), put at service with a suitable individual within the community, or apprenticed to a trade at land or at sea (from 1887), or placed in the custody of a person who has given a bond (also from 1887). There was also scope for a convicted children to be treated as a neglected child. - became known as juvenile offenders (1954 - 1956) and offenders after that. The files contain documentation relating to the commitment, placement, and management of the child by the Department. These can include original police reports, protection orders, social workers' case notes, reports of institutional staff, adoption documents and correspondence between the Department and the child's parents. It should be noted that this series consists of the files that were created and maintained by the Department at its head office. This series does not contain the files that may have been created and maintained by any private institution or public correctional facility where some of these children may have been placed; papers sent from these institutions and facilities about individual children and received by the Head Office can be found in the files of this series but the extent to which these files duplicate each other is unknown. Changes from 1 July 1961 On 1 July 1961 the Social Welfare Act 1960 was proclaimed. It created two new Divisions within the Social Welfare Branch to deal with wards based on the age of the children. Children who were over the age of 14 years became the responsibility of the Youth Welfare Division. The file for any child over 14 years who was under state care on 1 July 1961 was removed from this series and allocated a completely new file number from a new filing system established by the Youth Welfare Division - refer to VPRS 16747. Children who were under the age of 14 on 1 July 1961 became the responsibility of the Family Welfare Division. Files for these children continued to be managed in this series (i.e VPRS 10071) until they reached the age of 14. At this point, responsibility passed to the Youth Welfare Division and the child's file was also removed from this series and allocated a completely new file number within VPRS 16747. A subsequent amendment to the Act increased the age limit under which the child moved from the Family Welfare Division to the Youth Welfare Division from 14 years to 15 years during 1971. Start of this series It is unclear when this series of files commenced. A description of the recordkeeping systems of the Department of Neglected Children was included as an Appendix to the Final Report of the Royal Commission on the State Public Services in 1917 and stated that, at that time, a child's history was documented within up to 5 different files. The author of the report was critical of this and recommended that the Department combine these to create a single file per child. The Department implemented this recommendation at some stage after the publication of this report, however, it cannot be ascertained with any clarity whether this occurred in 1917. There are no files in this series for any child who was admitted to care prior to the 1920s and only a relatively small amount of files exist for children admitted between then and the start of 1935. Moreover, no other files from this series are known to exist anywhere else for the pre 1935 period. It is probable that all other files from this series for this period and all of the departmental files that preceded the creation of the files in this series as described in the 1917 Final Report Appendix were destroyed by the Department as a result of general disposal recommendations made by the same Royal Commission in its 1916 Interim Report. The author of the Appendix to the 1917 Royal Commission Final Report stated that the Department had started to destroy records at that time. End of this series This series ended in 1978 when the Family Welfare Division was abolished. It and the Youth Welfare Division (which was also abolished at that time) were merged to form the Family and Adolescent Division of the Social Welfare Department. A new client numbering system was introduced in 1978 that replaced the filing systems of both the Family Welfare (i.e this series, VPRS 10071) and the Youth Welfare Division (i.e VPRS 16747) - refer to VPRS 16749. In other words, the file of any child in this series (i.e VPRS 10071) who was still in State care in 1978 was taken over by the Family and Adolescent Division and allocated a new file number from VPRS 16749. Completeness of this series from 1935 It is thought that the only files that are missing from this series from 1935 onwards are those that were removed and given new file numbers in subsequent series brought about by the administrative changes introduced in 1961 and 1978 - refer to VPRS 16747 and VPRS 16749.

本数据集系列包含相关档案，涉及由国家监护的两类群体：一类为保障其人身安全而受国家监护者，另一类为因实施犯罪行为需接受惩处与改造者。此类政府职能可追溯至《1864年受忽视与犯罪儿童法案》（Neglected and Criminal Children's Act 1864）的颁布。彼时，需采取保护措施的儿童被称为受忽视儿童，需接受惩处的儿童则被称为定罪儿童。1887年，用于统称所有此类儿童的通用术语“国家受监护人（wards of the State）”被正式启用。

1864年法案颁布后的百余年间，诸多立法变革对上述政府职能产生了影响。总体而言，核心变革分为两类，分别针对受忽视儿童与定罪儿童：

### 针对受忽视儿童
1. 认定主体：1907年以前由治安法官认定其受忽视情形，1907年之后改由儿童法庭认定。
2. 适用年龄范围：1887年以前为15周岁以下儿童；1887年至1915年为17周岁以下儿童；1915年起调整为21周岁以下儿童。
3. 安置方式：可由主管部门安排至公立工业学校（仅1880年以前适用）、获批私立机构，或寄养于社区合适家庭、从事社区服务，亦或签订学徒协议参与陆上或海上行业工作。
4. 称谓变更：1954年起，此类儿童被正式称为“需照料与保护儿童”。

### 针对定罪儿童
1. 定罪认定与适用年龄：1907年以前由治安法官认定其有罪，1907年之后改由儿童法庭认定；年龄范围方面，1864年至1887年为15周岁以下，1887年起调整为17周岁以下。
2. 安置方式：可由主管部门安排至公立改造学校（仅19世纪90年代末以前适用）、私立改造学校（1887年起适用，需年满12周岁），或寄养于社区合适家庭、签订学徒协议参与陆上或海上行业工作（1887年起），亦或交由缴纳保释金的个人监护（1887年起新增）。此外，定罪儿童也可被认定为受忽视儿童并按相应规则处置。
3. 称谓变更：1954年至1956年间，此类儿童被称为“少年犯”，1956年之后统一称为“犯罪者”。

本数据集档案包含主管部门对儿童的收容、安置与管理相关文件，具体包括原始警方报告、保护令、社会工作者个案记录、机构工作人员报告、收养文件，以及主管部门与儿童父母之间的往来通信。

需说明的是，本数据集系列仅包含主管部门总部编制并留存的档案。部分安置于私立机构或公立惩戒机构的儿童的档案，若由相关机构自行编制留存，则未纳入本系列；但上述机构提交至总部的针对个体儿童的文件，可在本系列档案中找到，目前尚不明确此类文件的重复率。

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1961年7月1日政策变更
1961年7月1日，《1960年社会福利法案》（Social Welfare Act 1960）正式颁布。该法案在社会福利署内设立两个新部门，按儿童年龄划分监护事务：14周岁以上的受国家监护儿童由青年福利部负责。1961年7月1日仍受国家监护的14周岁以上儿童的档案，将从本系列中移出，并按照青年福利部新建的归档系统分配全新档案编号——详见VPRS 16747。

1961年7月1日未满14周岁的受监护儿童则由家庭福利部负责。此类儿童的档案将继续由本系列（即VPRS 10071）管理，直至其年满14周岁；届时档案将移交至青年福利部，并从本系列中移出，按照VPRS 16747的归档系统分配全新编号。

1971年，该法案的后续修正案将儿童从家庭福利部移交至青年福利部的年龄上限从14周岁调整为15周岁。

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本数据集系列的起始时间
本数据集系列的起始时间暂未明确。1917年《州公共服务皇家委员会最终报告》附录中收录了受忽视儿童部门的档案管理系统说明，其中提到彼时每名儿童的成长记录会分散存储于最多5份不同的档案中。报告作者对此提出批评，并建议部门将此类档案合并为每名儿童一份的单一档案。

该部门在1917年报告发布后的某个阶段落实了这一建议，但目前无法明确该项整改是否于1917年完成。本系列中无1920年代以前被纳入国家监护的儿童档案，1920年代至1935年初期间的相关档案数量也相对较少。此外，目前已知无1935年以前的本系列档案留存于其他机构。根据1917年皇家委员会最终报告附录的描述，本系列1935年以前的其余档案，以及该系列建立前的所有部门档案，大概率已因该皇家委员会1916年中期报告提出的通用档案处置建议而被部门销毁。1917年皇家委员会最终报告附录的作者提到，该部门已于彼时启动档案销毁工作。

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本数据集系列的终止时间
本数据集系列于1978年终止，当年家庭福利部被撤销。该部门与同期撤销的青年福利部合并为社会福利署家庭与青少年部。1978年起启用全新的服务对象编号系统，取代原家庭福利部（即本系列VPRS 10071）与青年福利部（即VPRS 16747）各自的归档系统——详见VPRS 16749。换言之，1978年仍受国家监护的本系列（VPRS 10071）儿童档案，将由家庭与青少年部接管，并按照VPRS 16749的系统分配全新档案编号。

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1935年后的档案完整性
据推测，1935年以后本系列仅缺失两类档案：一是因1961年与1978年行政改革被移出至后续系列并分配新编号的档案，详见VPRS 16747与VPRS 16749。