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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the London Borough of Islington
INTRODUCTION
In his report for 1969 my predecessor. Dr. S. King, described 1969 as "the year of the Consultants" and
referred to the changes and re-organisation which were beginning or were foreshadowed in the work of the
Health Department. Change and the prospect of change were predominant throughout 1970 and indeed are
likely to be so for a considerable time to come, culminating in the total re-organisation of the National
Health Service which the Government has decided will take place in 1974 and which will involve the
personal health functions of the department together with its medical nursing and associated administrative
staff being absorbed into an area health authority outside local government. The environmental health
services will remain with the Borough, and in this connection the future role of the public health
inspectorate and in particular the Chief Public Health Inspector assumes great importance. It is vital that
there should remain in local government a senior officer with overall responsibility for Environmental
Health. Any move towards the fragmentation of the responsibilities of local authorities in this field over a
number of departments would therefore be undesirable, since only by placing the responsibility for
Environmental Health in all its aspects firmly on the shoulders of an officer of adequate training,
experience and seniority will it be possible to ensure that adequate emphasis is given in the future to the
important role which local authorities will continue to have in this field. In addition, of course, the
arrangements which will have to be made for medical advice to be available when necessary from Area
Health Boards will be much easier to implement in practice if the Environmental Health services of the
local authority are retained in a single department with a responsible senior officer rather than broken up
and divided between several departments.
Fortuitously, 1970 saw, in addition to organisational change, the continuation of a series of retirements
amongst the senior members of the department's staff which began late in 1969 with the departure of Miss
K. B. Harvey, the former Principal Nursing Officer, and her replacement by Miss L. K. May. These
retirements taken together entailed a complete change of personnel in the four senior posts of Director of
Public Health, Chief Public Health Inspector, Principal Nursing Officer and Chief Administrative Officer.
Tribute is paid elsewhere in this report to the services rendered to the department and the borough by the
retiring officers, but I should like to take this opportunity of mentioning my personal indebtedness to
Dr. King, both for leaving me a department whose efficient administration made my task in taking over
responsibility so much lighter than it might otherwise have been, and for his kindness and help during the
period of overlap between my commencing my services with the borough in June and his retirement in
August. It is also a pleasure to pay tribute to the exemplary manner in which Messrs. Jacob and Sharp, the
newly-appointed Chief Public Health Inspector and Chief Administrative Officer respectively, and Miss
May, the Principal Nursing Officer, have acquitted themselves during their first year in post.
To return to the subject of organisational change, 1970 saw the completion of the restructuring of the
department along the lines laid down by Messrs Booz Allen and Hamilton, and it is hoped that the new
structure will facilitate further and continued improvement in the quality of the services provided by the
department. Under this head it is proper that tribute should be paid to the Personnel Officer and his
Organisation and Methods team for the manner in which they carried through the detailed re-organisation,
and for the extent to which the views of the department were taken into account in formulating proposals.
The issues on which an "agreement to differ" had to be reached and which were referred for settlement to
the Personnel Committee's Working Party were thus reduced to a minimum.
The year was marked by the passage into law of the Local Authority Social Services Act which
implemented the proposals of the Seebohm Committee and by the publication in February of the second
Green Paper on the Re-organisation of the National Health Service. Development in the latter sphere was
interrupted by the change of Government resulting from the General Election of June 18th, but the new
Government confirmed its intention to re-organise the National Health Service concurrently with reforming
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