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9
Directorate of Social Services,
Municipal Offices,
Royal Hill, S.E.10.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
London Borough of Greenwich.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in presenting the annual report for 1970 concerning
the health and social circumstances of Greenwich.
This is the last occasion when I shall be writing with overall
responsibility for the full range of services, since by the time this
report is in print, the Directorate will be divided as a result of the
passing of the Social Services Act. This is not now the occasion
to dwell on the wisdom or otherwise of the refusal of the Government
to allow the retention of a combined Department or of the
way health and social services will be organised in the future. All
points of view are pressed with a determination which is intolerant
of dissent and I am content that the quality of the services which
have been built up over the years will be judged eventually in an
atmosphere of objectivity and free from the euphoria of change.
We are informed nationally however that we must be prepared for
a temporary diminution in the quality and quantity of service in
the transition period but we are promised dramatic improvements
when the reorganisations have had time to settle down.
At a time of national stringency when resources are strained,
it seems to me that practical and tangible help is of more importance
than gratuitous advice and organisational structures. It is no
accident that in Greenwich there has been, over the years, a concentration
on what was felt to be essential help for groups already
in great need. This emphasis is underlined by our being constantly
at the top or near the top of the national league in the provision
of such things as meals-on-wheels, lunch clubs, holidays, laundry
and bathing services for the elderly and by the fact that the building
programme of homes for the elderly, if unimpeded, will have
overtaken the immediate needs in less than five years.
The residential services for the elderly, the handicapped and the
neglected are still an immediate top priority. This means not only
an ambitious building programme but a recognition of the important
role of residential staff and a raising of the status of residential
work—if need be, even at the expense of other field work—
for it is on the residential staff that the continuing burden falls.
In parallel with these developments must come an imaginative
implementation of the provisions of the Chronically Sick and