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31
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 borough 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.
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
shown 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; health department leaflets have been printed and
displayed; 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.
During the year it was decided to issue a quarterly bulletin to
local clubs, organisations, doctors and dentists, so that it could be available
to club members, those attending surgeries, and so on. The first
issue was in January 1960 and some 500 copies were distributed.
The collection of home accident statistics is to some extent a longterm
process and it is only by obtaining the knowledge and studying it
and analysing it that one has a chance of showing different groups of
accidents which may be more preventable than other groups, or certain
localities which appear to be more accident-prone than others. It would
of course be on those that any work of the department would be particularly
brought to bear.
The accompanying table indicates in detail the figures for
Lewisham cases reported from the Sydenham Children's Hospital for
the four quarters of 1959. No particular concentration in street, block
of flats, or locality has so far shown up. I was unable to obtain returns
direct from Lewisham Hospital but the LCC was collecting some statistics—at
least for part of the year.