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69
The total income amounts to £37 5s. id., and so far as maternity and
child welfare is concerned the share is spent on necessary articles which
cannot properly be provided by the rates. As regards the handicraft
class it is used for providing materials.
Homes for Unmarried Mothers, etc.—The Council made a grant
of £100 to the Home of St. John the Baptist at Tulse Hill. This
home was formerly in the City, and cases from Westminster are eligible
for admission, the minimum period of residence being eight months.
During 1936 three Westminster women were admitted to the home.
This home serves a most useful purpose. The women generally admitted
on the recommendation of the rescue worker are maintained at least three
months before confinement and are retained from 9 to 12 months after.
During this period they are trained for domestic or other useful occupation.
Supply of Milk.—Fresh or dried milk is supplied free or at half-price
in certain cases recommended by the medical officers of the maternity and
child-welfare centres. Grants are made only in cases where the income of
the family, after deductions have been made in respect of rent and other
outgoings, is within the limits laid down in a scale of income prepared by
the Minister of Health. Applications are dealt with at the meetings of the
Maternity and Child Welfare Sub-Committee, which take place once a
month at one or other of the Council's centres. Grants are made for a
period of one calendar month and are reconsidered at each subsequent
meeting of the Committee.
Although the addition of milk to the diet of mothers and children
does much to ensure that they will be protected from any danger of
vitamin deficiency, further protective additions to the diet are desirable
in many cases. To meet this need the Council has arranged for the supply
at the centres of cod liver oil preparations for mothers and children.
Ostocalcium, Bemax and an iron preparation are also issued, when
required, to ante-natal and post-natal cases in which there seems a
possibility of a shortage of vitamins or of necessary minerals in the diet.
These preparations are supplied on the recommendation of the medical
officer conducting the clinic. They may be issued free in cases where
the income falls within the limits which permit the issue of free milk.
Preparations of dried milk amounting to 2,806 pounds were distributed
during the year. The amount expended by the Council for fresh milk
as extra nourishment for mothers and infants amounted to £651 15s. 9d.
Home Helps.—Provision was made in one case for the services of a
home help at a cost of £1 8s. 6d, There is no panel of home helps. It
is found more satisfactory for the woman requiring this service to make