View report page

35
Home Helps.
Twenty-six applications were received during the year for the provision of home helps under
the council's scheme. The assistance requested was granted in 21 cases for a period of 14 days
each ; in one case for one month ; in one case for three weeks ; in one case for one week ; one
applicant cancelled her request ; and one application was not granted by the sub-committee. The
gross cost of the scheme to the council during the year was £37 10s. Od.
Supply of Extra Nourishment for Expectant and Nursing Mothers and for Infants.
During the year the council have paid special attention to the means by which the nutrition
and health of the poorer mothers and infants in the borough might be improved. The beneficial
influence of the free milk grants has been recognised, and in order to encourage more applications
from those in need, the normal period of assistance has been extended from six to 12 months,
subject to the existing practice whereby each case is periodically reviewed ; the period of each
milk grant has also been extended from 28 to 56 days if the case appears to be one in which the
circumstances are not likelv to alter.
In order to meet the additional expenditure as a result of the council s decisions in regard to
extra nourishment, a sum of £1,800 was provided in the estimates.
In the year, 2,023 grants of milk were made by the council s applications sub-committee. Six
hundred and twenty-five of the grants were in response to new applications, and the remaining
1,398 were renewals of grant. Under the council's scheme, 94,276 pints of fresh milk were granted
free of charge at a cost to the council of £1,049 13s. Od. ; 2,023 packets of dried milk were granted
free of charge at a cost of £378 19s. 6d.

The facilities for the supply of free dinners to expectant and nursing mothers have been
improved, and there are now eight dinner centres in North Kensington where these are supplied.
The council have also considered it expedient that certain expectant and nursing mothers should
receive free dinners in addition to free grants of milk. Forty-nine applications for dinners were
granted ; 12 of these were new applications, and 37 were renewals. The cost of the dinners
amounted to £27 7s. 6d. The total number of dinners supplied was 1,095.
In June, 1932, the council approved of a scheme whereby extra nourishment could be granted
by the public assistance authority through the council's maternity and child welfare service to
expectant and nursing mothers in receipt of out-door relief. The grants made at the expense of the
London county council during the year were as follows :—
700 pints of milk at a cost of £9 15s. 0½d.
25 packets of dried milk at a cost of £1 15s. 5d.
In 1934; the county council and the borough council agreed to extend the scheme so that those
women attending ante-natal clinics at the county council hospitals who were not in receipt of relief,
but were needing extra nourishment, could be assisted by grant of extra nourishment at the
expense of the borough council. Help given under this heading is included in the total
expenditure of the borough council given above.
The council gave consideration to the new scheme of the Milk Marketing Board for supplying
milk to schoolchildren at reduced prices, and sent a recommendation to the board asking them to
consider extending the scheme so as to cover pre-school children attending maternity and child
welfare centres.
Birth Control.
The question of giving birth control advice to married women has occupied the council's
attention on various occasions. In 1931, they decided to pay a fee of five shillings in respect of
each married woman referred for birth control advice by a Kensington infant welfare centre to the
North Kensington Women's Welfare Centre (birth control clinic). The conditions upon which
advice could be given were strictly medical, social and economic grounds not being accepted.