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The grants are given free or at a reduced cost in conformity
with a scale of income agreed to by the Borough Council and
approved by the Ministry of Health already reported.
The Borough Council reserves the right in particular circumstances
to vary this scale in favour of the applicant, subject to every
case of alteration being specially sanctioned by the Sub-Committee.
Each applicant for a grant has to fill up and sign a printed
form of application.
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 milk 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 hour 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 1927, 1,316 applications were received, an
average of 110 per month; 355 families received grants in respect
of these applications; the largest proportion of applications was
made during the March quarter, 1027. Many applications related
to both mother and child, and in respect of 1,316 applications
1,447 grants were made. 15 applications were refused for various
reasons, for example:—lncome beyond scale approved by the