Just thinking about the proposed refugee scheme and personally, expecting that there'll be very little take up. I feel very sorry for all involved but not enough to share my home. I'll try and "do my bit" but it won't involve taking strangers in.
To our modern sensibilities the evacuee programme seems almost impossible. Send small children away to stay with strangers? Accept strangers' children into your home and be responsible for their wellbeing (and discipline?)
Was an incentive offered? Did host families get a contribution towards cost? Did the children's families have to contribute? Was it compulsory to send your child and/or to host if you had space?
My gran always spoke fondly of "their" evacuee (gran was also a child at the time) and kept in touch through letter writing until she died, but there was always an air of superiority about having taken in this poor child. That child was probably well cared for, but there must surely have been 100s who weren't? Was any "safeguarding" done?
And, if we house refugees with host families, what checks will be done to make sure they're not being exploited or harmed in any way? I'd love to think everyone who takes them in is doing it out of human kindness, but we know that won't be true in every case 