Catalogue description Board of Education and successors: Elementary Education: Poor Law School Files

Numerically in separate series for England and Wales.

Poor Law Schools were provided and maintained by the Guardians of the Poor, either attached to workhouses or as separate schools. In 1904 the inspection of the educational and industrial work of these schools was transferred to the Board of Education from the Local Government Board. The Local Government Board, later the Ministry of Health, continued to be responsible for the institutional side.

The Local Government Act, 1929, transferred the functions of the Poor Law Authorities to the councils of counties and county boroughs. The remaining Poor Law Schools were administered under Section 53 of the Poor Law Act, 1930 and were statutorily subject to inspection by H.M. Inspectors.

The Poor Law was superseded by the National Assistance Act, 1948, and by virtue of paragraph 8 of the Second Schedule of the Childrens Act, 1948, the remaining Poor Law Schools passed to the Childrens Authorities. The provision of education was not included under the Childrens Act and the schools were either closed or became recognised maintained schools.