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attention on means which sometimes conflict with desired ends,
often resulting in an unsatisfactory or a mediocre compromise.
Human reactions to set circumstances are unpredictable, and, with
personal services, something more is demanded which cannot be
satisfied by detailed planning. Management techniques such as
cost benefit analyses are useful tools but they seek to place a value
on benefits from community services which are indefinable in
statistical terms. Moreover, these scientific methods are alien to
close personal relationships and, in the long run, are liable to
produce a cold, impersonal and therefore less effective community
care service.
Moving from philosophical and contentious matters to more
practical problems, an indication of the size of the task likely to
confront the newly emerging social service organisations can be
gauged by referring to a speech made by a Government spokesman
to an International Conference in America recently. He stated that
a British city of one million inhabitants would, inter alia, contain
the following categories, all of which would impinge in some way
upon our community care services:—
5,000 Mentally handicapped.
160,000 Old Age Pensioners.
30,000 Criminals and Delinquents (past and present).
35,000 People without jobs.
150,000 Lonely or depressed persons.
300,000 Living in inadequate housing.
With almost a quarter of a million residents, Greenwich would
expect to have its appropriate proportion of these groups.
However, in this Borough our services have already been geared
to this situation and the new Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons
Act will, in the main, merely entail an extension of existing facilities.
Unfortunately, in the euphoric-like atmosphere following the
introduction of this Act there is a real danger of practicalities
being submerged by benevolent emotion. Our sympathies must
not disguise the fact that services on a vast scale cannot be created
automatically nor expansion achieved over-night. Moreover, because
the full implementation of the Act will be a major task we need to
be fully aware of the total situation before our limited resources
are irrevocably committed. We must also be wary of making premature
judgements on the efforts of local authorities to implement
the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. The timing of its
introduction is, to say the least, unfortunate in that it becomes
operative at a period of the fiscal year when Council estimates
have already been agreed and the local authority General Rates
settled; demands for further substantial finance would, in these