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34
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The Borough Council's Scheme of maternity and child welfare work includes the following
amongst other activities :—
(a) Home visiting of expectant and nursing mothers and children by the Council's
staff of women health officers.
(b) Co-ordination of the work of the voluntary maternity and child welfare institutions
in the borough.
(c) The subsidisation of the voluntary infant welfare institutions.
(d) The provision of "home helps."
(e) The provision of hospital accommodation for infants.
(f) The provision of convalescent home accommodation for mothers and infants.
(g) The provision of home nursing for sick mothers and infants.
(h) The supply of milk and meals free or at a reduced price to necessitous mothers and
infants.
(i) The provision of a maternity home.
(j) The payment of travelling expenses of mothers attending hospitals to breast feed
their infants.
(k) Arrangements for the treatment of ophthalmia neonatorum and zymotic enteritis.
(l) The subsidisation of a massage and electrical treatment centre for cases of infantile
paralysis, etc.
(m) Addresses on health and the prevention of disease by a health lecturer.
(«) The distribution of pamphlets and booklets giving advice on various matters
concerning the welfare of mothers and infants.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1929.
The introduction of the Local Government Act, 1929, effected a radical alteration of the system
under which the Government grant financial aid to local authorities in respect of certain health and
other services and to approved voluntary organisations undertaking maternity and child welfare
work.
Before the 1st April, 1930, 50 per cent. of the Borough Council's expenditure approved by the
Minister of Health in respect of maternity and child welfare work was refunded by the Government.
Likewise, 50 per cent. of the approved expenditure of voluntary maternity and child welfare organisations
was refunded to them by the Government. These so-called percentage grants were abolished
by the Act as from the 1st April, 1930, and have been replaced by a block grant which is calculated
on a formula depending on population, rateable value and other factors.
The block grant paid to the Borough Council not only replaces the percentage grant hitherto
paid to them in respect of their maternity and child welfare expenditure, but it also replaces the
percentage grant previously paid in regard to tuberculosis work, road repairs, etc. ; it also takes the
place of the percentage grant paid to certain Kensington voluntary maternity and child welfare
organisations.
Section 101(6) of the Local Government Act, 1929, reads as follows :—
"As respects the County of London, the Minister shall, before the beginning of each fixed
grant period, after consultation with the Councils concerned, make a scheme determining,
in relation to voluntary associations providing maternity and child welfare services, which of
those services are to be treated as services in respect of which the London County Council are
to contribute and which are services in respect of which the common Council of the City of
London and the councils of the metropolitan boroughs are to contribute ; and the scheme shall
provide for the payment during the fixed grant period to the association by the several councils
of contributions of such amounts as may be specified in the scheme."
Under this section the Minister of Health has prepared a scheme which provides that the
Borough Council shall pay to certain voluntary institutions within the borough a fixed minimum
grant in each of the three years commencing the 1st April, 1930. The total annual grant to be paid
in this way is £6,285, and is included in the figures shown on page 21 of this report.
The amount of contribution specified for each institution represents roughly the amount of
grant paid to that institution by the Minister of Health in respect of the " standard " financial year
ended the 31st March, 1929, plus the amount of any grant paid thereto for that year by the Borough
Council Thus, it will be seen that the scheme guarantees to each voluntary institution a grant not
less than that which was received for the " standard " year.