[an error occurred while processing this directive] New Heys Reception/Assessment Centre, Liverpool, Lancashire
Ancestry UK

New Heys Reception/Assessment Centre, Liverpool, Lancashire

The New Heys Reception Centre. at Allerton Road, Liverpool, was opened in the 1950s to satisfy the 1948 Children Act requirement on Liverpool City Council to provide a Reception Centre. The establishment provided 30 places and was initially under the charge of Mr Robbie Kydd.

In the mid-1960s, Mr Ernest W. Evans became Officer in Charge and turned the Centre into a place of healing for children who had suffered some form of trauma. His aim was to make New Heys the last-but-one placement a child had. He or she was largely permitted to take their time, enabling them to recover, and allow a suitable long-term placement to be found, whether than meant a return home, a foster home or an adoptive home. The home had an extension by this time, and children were accommodated mostly in ones and threes in the available bedrooms. One member of staff was assigned to each bedroom and normally got the children up, sat with them at mealtimes and put them to bed, but might be working with any of the children for the rest of their shift. Each member of staff was paired with another member of staff who covered their bedroom(s) as well as their own when they were off. If both were off, for example, on holiday and a day off, a senior member of staff would take the responsibility for the bedrooms.

The entrance to New Heys was modified by the first Director of Social Services for Liverpool City Council so that he could visit the home without meeting any of the children.

In the 1970s, New Hays became an Assessment Centre for children entering the child care system.

Former New Heys Reception Centre, Liverpool

Records

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Bibliography

  • None identified at present.

Acknowledgment

  • Thanks to John Hudson for information on this home.