Methodist Babies Home

Methodist Babies' Home history in brief

In 1929, the Laymen's Missionary Movement of the Methodist Church established the Methodist Babies Home. It comprised four nurseries for about 52 babies.

By 1956, it was registered as a Mothercraft Training School and a play centre for children from birth to three years. The home facilitated adoptions in conjunction with the Methodist Mission in Melbourne. In the 1960s, the home also cared for wards and infant life protection placements, but most were still private placements, many whose mothers were at the Methodist Central Mission's Girls Home, Fairfield.

In the mid-1960s, the home introduced new, self-contained arrangements for the care of babies and very young children, and a toddlers’ cottage for children up to three or four years. The home had capacity for about 40 children. By the early 1970s, numbers were down at both the Methodist and Presbyterian Babies homes. In 1971, the two homes amalgamated, forming the Copelan Street Family Centre.

In 1974, the Methodist Church changed the approach at Copelan Street to increase families' participation in children’s care, with many being privately fostered.

The Copelan Street Family Centre also housed the Methodist Child Care Service, providing counselling for single mothers, including those living at the Presbyterian Sisterhood and Eden Court, Ascot Vale. Child care service social workers staffed the foster care and adoption programs, and worked with families and children from Kildonan and Orana Children's Homes, Kilmany Park farm-home for boys and the Presbyterian Babies Home.

By 1985, the child care service was a multi-service agency operating at local, regional and statewide levels. Services included day care and kindergarten, emergency housing, family support, foster care and special needs adoption. In the 1990s Copelan Child and Family Services operated from 69 Wellington Street Windsor.

Copelan Child and Family Services is now part of UnitingCare Connections, which coordinates child and family service programs in the eastern and southern regions of metropolitan Melbourne.

Warning about distressing information

This guide contains information that some people may find distressing. If you experienced abuse as a child or young person in an institution mentioned in this guide, it may be a difficult reading experience.Guides may also contain references to previous views, policies and practices that are regrettable and do not reflect the current views, policies or practices of the department or the State of Victoria. If you find this content distressing, please consult with a support person either from the Department of Health and Human Services or another agency.

Disclaimer

Please note that the content of this administrative history is provided for general information only and does not purport to be comprehensive. The department does not guarantee the accuracy of this administrative history. For more information on the history of child welfare in Australia, see Find & Connect.

Source

Guide to out-of-home care services 1940–2000: volume one – agency descriptions, compiled by James Jenkinson Consulting, North Melbourne, November 2001.

List of records held by the department

For information relating to the central management of care leavers and wards of state, please consult the guide to Central department wardship and out-of-home care records. These collections date back to the 1860s and include ward registers, index cards and ward files.

Voluntary children's homes files (c.1930–c.1985)

File; Permanent VPRS Number 18069 / P0002

Content: The files record interaction between the various voluntary homes and the government. This filing system was created in 1975, combining earlier correspondence and other records to create one system with VH prefixes.

The specific file relating to the Methodist Babies Home is dated from 1956–76 and includes:

File VH 083 78:

• file note outlining the numbers, condition and ages of children that Methodist Babies Home would accept from Turana and regularity of parental visits, 1956
• file note: three cots reserved for wards and older siblings would go to Orana, 1956
• correspondence and approval for establishment as an approved children’s home, notes that the building dates from 1929 and can accommodate 100, but in practice limited accommodation to 40, 1956
• inspection report recommends not placing adoptable wards at the home, 1958
• inspection report notes that the home is run like a hospital and that new admissions are isolated for three weeks to minimise cross infections, 1960
• staff changes, 1962
• parental visits now encouraged, 1962
• inspection report, 1963
• copy of report by Dr Bialestock, comments and makes recommendations on structures and operation of babies homes generally, 1963
• staff changes, 1967
• inspection report refers to plans to restructure the home into smaller units including a cottage, 1967
• copy of a report discussing alternative of using foster care instead of housing children in either the Methodist or Presbyterian babies homes, acknowledging that there may be a continuing need for such placements, 1973
• announcement of a new program, the Parents and Children’s Centre to operate from the site, 1973
• annual report, 1973
• copy of Children Calling, newsletter of Methodist Department of Child Care announcing the new service and closure of babies home as of March 1974
• copy of Children Calling newsletter, explaining the new services (to supporters looking for news of original homes), 1976.