[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Kent County Council.

  • Kent (England). County Council. n 50045898.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Kent County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/42 (page 5)
    have made application to her for the children to be taken into care by the County Council. The arrangements provide that assistance will not be provided for more than three months but experience in 1955 has already shown that this may, on occasion, have to be exceeded. Families coming within the ambit of the scheme are divided into three groups: (1) Where more than one of the children are under school age and where additional attention is required in the home whilst the father is at work. (2) Families where the children are all of school age and who require service during those hours of the day before and after school when the father is still at work. (3) Families where the father is on night work and services are required to look after the children, whether they are at school or not, during the periods when he is away or sleeping during the day. Two types of helpers have been recruited and they are (a) helpers working in connection with groups (1) and (3), who are recruited on a whole-time basis and paid a weekly wage and {b) helpers attending families in group (2) who are paid on an hourly rate which is the same as that appropriate to the Domestic Help Service in the area. Experience of the scheme during the relatively short time it has been in operation has been most encouraging. Undoubtedly many families have been kept together instead of being split up by having to be taken into care by the Children’s Committee. I am indebted to the Children’s Officer for the smoothness of the arrangements which have been brought into operation between her and the staff of the Children’s Department and the staff in the Health Department. This again is an example of an experimental scheme which is being operated for a limited period of time in order to assess its value and the lines upon which any further action towards the preservation of family life should be determined by the Council. Significant developments have taken place in the services provided for mental defectives and under arrangements proposed by the Health Committee additional facilities should be provided in forthcoming years by the provision of new occupation centres. It is regrettable to record, however, that because of the shortage of staff in institutions maintained by the Regional Hospital Board the waiting list for mental defectives needing residential care continues to grow. A somewhat similar position arises in relation to the care of old people where the waiting list of those requiring care and attention in old people’s homes increases faster than the rate of additional provision which has been made every year since 1948 when the National Assistance Act came into force. Since 1948 the County Council has provided 19 new homes for old people but, in view of the steady increase in the proportion of old people in the population, it seems that the rate of such > provision needs to be reconsidered in light of the steady increase in the waiting list. A great deal of work was done during the year in the consideration of draft schemes for considera- tion by the Council of services under the National Assistance Act for the welfare of handicapped people other than the blind and partially-sighted. This work resulted in formal schemes being approved by the County Council in 1955 for submission to the Minister but it is unlikely that they can become fully operative until 1956. The other health services have continued to develop on the lines laid down by the Council. It is worthy of note that for the first time since the inception of the National Health Service in 1948 the proportion of confinements in hospital has declined and there has been a rise in the number of domiciliary confinements taking place at home. I should like again to place on record my appreciation of the encouragement and consideration afforded to the staff of the Health Department by Members of the Council and to express my thanks to members of the staff for their work during the year. A. ELLIOTT, County Medical Officer.