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10
Disabled Persons Act. Adaptations to homes and physical aids
must be provided in generous measure and must be allied to expanding
provision of domiciliary and day care.
Since the provision of health and social services is now being
linked with management efficiency and the ultimate determination
of priority by alleged scientific methods, this must bring me to a
discussion of the whole question of planning and management of
health and welfare in local government. One of the great myths
assiduously propagated by commercial management consultants is
the assertion that local government is grossly inefficient in relation
to industry. Not content with comparing local government disadvantageously
with industry, they are injudicious enough to cite
American civic administration as the shining example. Remarkable
as it may seem, large and progressive municipal administrations
with an honourable record in this country have been
conditioned to believing that American cities (some of whose
health and social problems shame our century) are the epitome of
efficiency and to adopting complicated methods of planning and
budgeting which are now wholly and belatedly discredited. In any
form of endeavour there is no substitute for the basic human
virtues of commonsense, compassion and prudent housekeeping;
this is the essence of democratic government. The options which
are open in the health and social services field are comparatively
few. Waste and inefficiency I believe to be infinitely less than the
cost of creating machinery to inculcate modern business methods
which are largely irrelevant. It makes no sense to spend £100,000
per annum to save £10,000 and sheer lunacy to spend that sum
year by year to generate further unproductive expenditure. Good
administration connotes order and economy consistent with the
level of service and a planning system must be simple, easy to
understand and to implement. A computer, if asked the right
questions and properly programmed, may be infallible; unfortunately
this is not true of management and planning experts. One
need only instance the social catastrophies of new towns, high rise
flats, the promises of cheaper gas and electricity from the North
Sea and nuclear power to bring the limitations of these techniques
into correct perspective. A slavish attachment to an alleged scientific
determinism will ultimately destroy the personal contact
between the professional experts, the elected members and the
community, which is so essential in the health and social field.
There is so much to do for the more unfortunate in the country
that it is sad to see municipalities dissipating their resources in a
vain search for the unobtainable.
I must now turn to a brief review of the year. The body of the
report contains much detail and analysis and I must be strictly