BOARDING-OUT SYSTEM, in the English Poor Law, the boarding-out of orphan or deserted children with suitable foster-parents. The practice was first authorized in 1868, though for many years previously it had been carried out by some boards of guardians on their own initiative. Boarding-out is governed by an order of the Local Government Board (now the Ministry of Health) issued in 191I, which permits guardians to board-out children within their own union, except in the metropolis, or in localities outside the union. Boarded-out children are subject to regular inspection by boarding-out committees specially appointed by the guardians of the union, and the work of the committees is watched by women inspectors appointed by the Minister of Health. Subject to the exercise of sufficient care in the selection of foster parents and of the children to be boarded-out, satis factory results are obtained by this system of relieving children who have to be maintained at the public cost; they are given a natural life, and when they grow up they are without effort merged in the general population (Mackay, Hist. Eng. Poor Law).
See also POOR LAW.