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The family is then visited by the Health Visitor or Maternity
Superintendent, who, after full consideration of the home circumstances
and condition of the mother and children, recommends
a grant of milk and/or dinners.
Thereafter the Medical Officer of Health immediately reviews
the whole case, increases the grant recommended, if need be,
and an order is forthwith sent to the milkman or dinner centre,
and information of the grant is sent to the applicant.
Urgent cases are dealt with at once before enquiries are
completed, and the grants are re-adjusted later when full information
has been received.
All grants are periodically reviewed by a Sub-Committee of
the Borough Council, which sits for about one-and-a-half to two
hours every alternate Monday afternoon. In this connection it is
pleasing to record that a grant has never been refused to any
necessitous mother or child.
Generally speaking, grants to children between 1 and 5 years
are only made in cases of illness, where a medical certificate is
furnished.
During the year 1925, 1,344 applications were received, an
average of 112 per month. 540 families received grants in respect
of these applications; the largest proportion of applications was
made during the March quarter, 1925. Many applications related
to both mother and child, and in respect of 1,320 applications 1,726
grants were made. Twenty-four applications were refused for
various reasons, for example : Income beyond scale approved by
the Council, mother not expectant within the prescribed period of
three months, child over five years of age. The grants comprised
milk 30,294 pints, dinners 7,511 and dried milk 1,215 pounds.
The majority of grants were free of cost to the applicant. In
some cases the applicants paid half the cost of the grant.
The net cost to the Council for the grants of milk, dinners and
dried milk was £721 l1s. 11d. The Ministry of Health refunds one
half of the approved net expenditure in this connection.