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APPENDIX II.
LAMBETH MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE SCHEME.
(Report of the Medical Officer of Health, presented on March 17th,
1924, to the Conference between members of the Maternity and Child
Welfare Committee and representatives of the 14 Voluntary Welfare
Centres of the Borough, with an Official of the Ministry of Health in
attendance, and presented to the Council on April 16th, 1924 )
The Lambeth Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme, when
inaugurated on April 13th, 1916, by the Borough Council, with the
approval of the then Local Government Board, was inaugurated on
strictly "voluntary principles," the special value of voluntary effort
in child welfare work being recognised and admitted. The area of
the Borough of Lambeth was accordingly divided up into administrative
units (twelve in number), and these different areas were allocated to
(1) approved voluntary welfare centres (nine in number), that were
already in existence ; (2) approved voluntary welfare centres (three in
number), to be established, in the near future, by the Borough Council,
on the recommendation of the Medical Officer of Health. These latter
three additional voluntary centres have since 'been established by the
Borough Council and approved by the Ministry of Health as the
successor of the Local Government Board.
The administrative areas of the voluntary centres, which were
approved, were, in nine instances, practically the same areas of the
particular voluntary centres' administrations before such centres
were included in the Lambeth Scheme, it being thought to be
unnecessary and undesirable to alter those particular areas, which were
so well known to the mothers living in the various districts. The
remaining portion of the Borough was divided up into suitable
administrative areas for the three new voluntary centres, which were
to be, and have since been, inaugurated and incorporated in the
Lambeth Scheme.
These twelve administrative areas were fixed by the Borough
Council on the 24th October, 1918 (Minutes 1917-18, pages 1246-7),
and approved by the then Local Government Board on the
20th December, 1918—such areas being chosen, not on the ground