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will normally amount to one-half the approved expenditure on any
of these purposes, but may be less if the Board so decide.
Grants to institutions of the nature of Schools for Mothers, the
object of which is primarily educational, which provide training and
instruction for mothers in the care and management of infants and
little children, and which may include systematic classes, or home
visiting, or infant consultations (the provision of specific medical
and surgical advice and treatment, if any, being only incidental),
will be administered by the Board of Education. Any cases of doubt
or difficulty will be investigated by a Joint Committee of Officers
of the two Boards, which will include women Medical Officers.
In sending a copy of this circular to voluntary agencies engaged
in infant welfare work, the Board will state that applications for
grants in respect of voluntary work may be made by a voluntary
agency either directly or through a local authority.
The grant now presented to Parliament will be appropriated
in aid of the expenditure of the half-year ended 30th September,
1914, and applications for grants should be accompanied by an
account of the work undertaken by the authority, and by a detailed
statement of the expenditure incurred, certified by the officer of the
local authority in charge of the accounts.
A reply was sent as follows :—
" 9th September, 1914.
Maternity and, Child Welfare.
Dear Sir,
I am duly in receipt of your letter of the 8th inst. enclosing
copy of a circular of the Local Government Board, dated 30th July.
This is the first communication I have received from the Board in
this matter, I cannot trace any previous letter to yours, and the
matter has not been considered by the Public Health and Housing
Committee of this Council. At a meeting of that Committee last
night, however, I mentioned that I had been and am still arranging
with a member of the Poplar Infant Care Association for the visitation
of expectant maternity in the wives of our Soldiers and Sailors
resident in this district, whose husbands are at the War ; and that
I had practically framed a scheme to work harmoniously with the
health visiting in this Borough, so that cases will be visited both
before and after the birth of the infant.
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