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All meals are now delivered in tinfoil trays conveyed in electrically-heated ovens and are provided
on five days a week at 10d a meal. 17 vans were used for the deliveries, and it is hoped
to increase this number in 1966.
Luncheon Clubs.
Nine Luncheon Clubs are run on behalf of the Borough by voluntary associations or
Church authorities with an additional helper usually paid by the Council. At the close of the
year under review plans were well advanced for the opening of two new clubs, one to be opened
in the Spring, 1966, and the other a little later.
Assessment Scheme.
The Welfare Committee of the Council approved a comprehensive assessment scheme
embracing charges for residential accommodation, meals, craft work and holidays. In future years
this will enable the holiday charge to be reduced for people on small incomes so that no one in
need of a holiday should be debarred by inability to pay.
Protection of Property.
Section 48 of the National Assistance Act, 1948 makes the Council responsible for the
protection of the moveable property of any person admitted to hospital or to residential accommodation
if there is no relative to accept this responsibility. Where necessary, officers of the
Council visit the home of the person concerned to make an inventory of such property. Steps are
then taken to secure the premises and, if the stay in hospital is likely to be prolonged, the
property may be removed and stored, or if unsuitable for storage it may be sold. In many cases
this is a difficult, dirty and unpleasant task.
Receiverships.
Section 105 of the Mental Health Act, 1959, empowers the Court of Protection to appoint
a Receiver to administer the affairs of any person who, by reason of mental disorder, is not able
to manage his own affairs. If the incapacitated person has no relative able and willing to accept
this responsibility, the Court appoints an officer of the appropriate Local Authority to do so. The
Welfare Officer was nominated for this purpose and has been responsible for fifteen cases during
1965.
Co-operation with Voluntary and other Statutory Bodies.
There is considerable scope for development in this direction. Contact has been established
or maintained with many voluntary organisations in the Borough and in particular with
Old Age Pensioners' Clubs and Associations; Bishop Creighton House; The Women's Royal
Voluntary Services; the British Red Cross Society; Organisations specialising in the welfare of
the blind, deaf and other handicapped people; the National Assistance Board; and the Ministry
of Labour Disablement Resettlement Officers.
The Ten-Year Plan.
In accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Health, the Council has prepared
a plan setting out proposals for the expansion, during the next decade, of the Welfare Services.
It provides for the complete withdrawal from the large Welfare Homes, referred to earlier in this
report, of the elderly people for whom the Council is responsible; and envisages very impressive
developments of the service, including the adaptation of St. Vincent's House to provide additional
residential accommodation, and a day centre, for the elderly. Other projects are to be four
new homes, units for the accommodation and training of homeless families, additional day centres,
and more facilities for the elderly, blind and other handicapped.
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