View report page

HOME HELP SERVICE
This service operates from three area offices, each staffed by a home help organiser, an
assistant organiser and a clerk.
There is considerable fluctuation in the number of home helps employed in each area
throughout the year. Recruitment of suitable persons for this work continues to be difficult
so that it is frequently impossible to provide more than the minimum service.
The demand for this service for aged persons is reflected in a report from one organiser
that during 1968 she provided home helps to 36 persons who are over 90 years of age, which
included the household of one couple where the wife was aged 95 and the husband 94 years.
The service also continued to provide early morning and evening help in households which
were motherless for various reasons, and thus provided a positive contribution to the prevention
of children being taken into residential care and also in keeping families together.
Many home helps give much kindly help beyond the service for which they are paid, and in
one such instance five motherless children were given a most successful party by the home
help, which was enjoyed by all concerned including the father of the children.

OBSERVATION AND HANDICAP REGISTER
As outlined fully in the 1967 report, an index of known handicapped children and young
persons (0-17+ years) is maintained centrally under the personal supervision of a principal
medical officer who reviews individual cases at frequent intervals. Every effort is made to
co-operate with those likely to be involved with the development and future welfare of those
included in the index. In addition, an observation register is maintained at welfare centres.
This includes the names of children who for various reasons may be at risk of developing a
handicap. The responsibility for keeping these 'at risk' children under regular review rests
with the medical and health visitor staff at the centres under the general supervision of the
principal medical officer. As a general rule a child's name is removed from the observation
or 'at risk' register at the age of two years if development is entirely normal.
Schoolchildren are under the care of the school doctor. Each child's case is reviewed
centrally based on reports from school medical officers received annually or more frequently
where necessary. For social problems the School Care Committees and the Invalid Children's
Aid Association provide links with the Public Health Department. Social workers (health
services) are attached to the three special schools, Frank Barnes (deaf), Hargrave Park
(partially hearing unit) and Cloudesley (physically handicapped). Case workers from the
Elfrida Rathbone Committee visit the families of children attending the three schools for the
educationally sub-normal. A social worker employed by the Inner London Education Authority,
based on the Public Health Department, is attached to the unit for autistic children at the
Horizon school.
92