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On the 4th February, 1936, the council assumed financial responsibility and control of the
Sutton Trust infant welfare centre ; on the 6th April the centre was transferred to its present commodious
premises leased from the community centre, and the lease of the previous premises was
assigned to the Kensington Council of Social Service to be used for handicraft classes. Originally
the Sutton Trust centre had served primarily the residents in Sutton Way, but it now serves a larger
area, and the council accordingly approved a proposal that the name should be changed to the
Dalgarno infant welfare centre. It is very satisfactory that the municipal control of this centre
has not entailed any severance from the voluntary committee of the centre who have rendered
valuable assistance during the year, both in their help at the sessions and in their conduct of the
social and benevolent side of the work ; their ready aid, both material and moral, to any mother
attending the centre who is in need of help has been greatly appreciated.
Two other voluntary committees (Kenley Street and Raymede) have found it impossible to
continue to finance the centres which they had conducted so successfully through their pioneer
years, and have requested the council to take over the financial control in order that they might
concentrate their time and efforts on the social work which is of so much value and is so essentially
the domain of the voluntary worker. The council have acceded to the requests.
The baby clinic committee also found in 1936 that they were unable to secure sufficient funds
from voluntary sources to maintain satisfactorily both the baby clinic and the baby hospital, and the
council have agreed to assume financial control of the former institution which plays a valuable and
important part in the council's scheme of maternity and child welfare.
Women Health Officers.
Eight women health officers are attached to the infant welfare centres serving the borough,
and the work of these officers forms the basis of the maternity and child welfare scheme.
Within twenty-one days of a birth, the health visitor calls at the home, advises the mother in
any difficulty which may have arisen since she left the hospital or was discharged by the midwife,
satisfies herself that the baby is receiving proper care and makes an appointment for the mother
to take it to the welfare centre in her district. In all cases the baby, even when attending the centre,
is visited at home every two months, and the importance of this home visiting is difficult to overestimate.
The council's health officers are highly qualified, and all are sanitary inspectors. They
have the knowledge and the tact to put things right by a hint when they see errors of hygiene in
the management of the home, whilst the mother has an opportunity to ask questions in the privacy
of this interview which she might hesitate to asked in a crowded clinic. The health visitor of the
present day is a friend of the family, and her influence is greater than it has ever been before.
Hygiene in the home is of enormous importance and it is the health visitor who can teach it.
In addition to the routine visiting of infants and young children and to their work at the infant
consultation sessions, the council's health visitors investigate cases of stillbirth and infantile death ;
they visit and report on cases of puerperal fever and puerperal pyrexia ; they visit and advise the
parents in cases of infectious disease amongst infants and young children, and help to obtain any
necessary treatment ; they arrange for the admission of women to the maternity home and to
convalescent homes, and investigate all applications under the council's scheme for the supply of
milk and dinners hnms helns boardinp-rmt nf children and sr> forth.

* This officer also acts as child life protection visitor.
The visiting in connection with tuberculosis and factories and workshops is dealt with in the
sections of this report dealing with those subjects, and a complete record of the work performed
by each woman health officer during the year appears in Table IV of Appendix II.