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28
Home safety
As a result of pressure by the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint
Committee a clause was included in the LCC (General Powers) Bill of
1957 (which subsequently became an Act) under which metropolitan
boroughs were given powers to deal to some extent with home safety.
S.82 of the 1957 Act allows a brough council " for the purpose of
promoting safety in the home and of encouraging the taking of proper
precautions in preventing the occurrence of accidents therein " to make
arrangements for the dissemination in the borough of information and
advice relating to such matters. This power has been followed in certain
of the metropolitan boroughs by the establishment of a Home Safety
committee, whereas in others of the metropolitan boroughs it has been
thought that any work of this nature can best be supervised by the
Public Health committee direct.
Before and after the passing of the Act, the Health department had
arranged or carried out certain propaganda or educational efforts in
connection with home safety. For example, home safety films have been
shewn to old peoples' clubs; various posters, leaflets and pamphlets
have been displayed or made available to the public; the Council
subscribes to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, home
safety section; a health department leaflet, headed "Burns and Fireguards"
has been printed and displayed; another leaflet entitled
"Burns and Scalds" is also being produced; various suggestions have
been made for home safety in the provision of housing; statistics on
accidents in the home are collected or sought from hospitals.
There are considerable difficulties administratively in creating a
home safety committee. In general it is accepted that the functions of
a home safety committee include the following :—
(a) To carry on a continual propaganda campaign locally, and
inform the public of the extent and gravity of the home accident
problem.
(b) To enlist the support of all interested municipal and social
organisations for this campaign.
(c) To investigate local home accident cases and their causes.
(d) To investigate possible remedies.
In short, local home safety committees would be responsible for all
activities within their area for education and propaganda in this field.
A full ad hoc home safety committee should have on it representatives
of 1.—local authorities (covering health, welfare, housing,
education), 2.—fire services, 3.—hospital authorities, 4.—local medical
committees, 5.—area gas board, 6.—area electricity board, 7.—voluntary
organisations. It will be seen therefore that such a committee would be
rather large and possibly unwieldy, as it would have—quite apart from
members of the Health committee—at least eight representatives of
outside bodies, and in addition representatives of voluntary organisations
and of hospital authorities if more than one Management committee is