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holiday home. Expectant mothers and mothers with babies or children under five years are also
catered for under this scheme. A small basic charge is made to patients, but if they are unable to
afford this, an assessment is made according to means. Recommendations for recuperative
holidays for school children are referred to the Inner London Education Authority who bear the
cost.
During 1966, the following admissions to recuperative holiday homes were arranged:—
Expectant and Nursing Mothers 1
Tuberculosis 6 (adults)
Other Adults 86
Accompanied children 14
Unaccompanied children under 5 years 1
School children 66
BOARDING OUT OF T.B. CONTACTS
It is sometimes necessary to make arrangements for children to be boarded out when their mother
is required to undergo hospital treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis and where there is no relative
to care for them. Arrangements for this are made by the Health Department in liaison with the
Chest Physicians and the Children's Department.
In 1966, 2 children were boarded out under this scheme.
HOME HELP SERVICE
Under Section 29 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, Home Help service is provided when
such assistance is required by reason of infirmity, ill health or age of a member of a household, for
which a charge, abatable in necessitous cases, is made.
The service in Westminster is administered from three offices situated at the City Hall, St. Marylebone
Town Hall, and the Paddington office at 313/319 Harrow Road, W.9., these respectively
serving areas corresponding to the former City of Westminster and the Boroughs of St. Marylebone
and Paddington. A Home Help Organiser is in charge at the City Hall, and a second Organiser
stationed at the Paddington office controls both the Paddington and St. Marylebone offices. Each
of the three offices has an Assistant Home Help Organiser and clerical staff.
In order to prevent children being taken into care in the absence of the mother and the inability
of the father to cope, arrangements are made for a home help to visit in the mornings to prepare,
and take the children to school or the day nursery, and again in the evening to see to their needs.
In addition, special home helps are used in the training and rehabilitation of problem families.
By guidance, example and advice, these home helps play an important part in encouraging parents
to improve their housekeeping and domestic affairs.
One of the factors involved in the increasing demand for the service is the lack of geriatric hospital
beds and accommodation in welfare homes. Persons discharged from hospital may require
immediate and prolonged home help service whilst those awaiting admission may also seek home
help assistance. Both categories may well require two or even three visits per day. Another
contributing factor is the increasing longevity of the population. The number of those over 70
years of age steadily rises and they come to depend more and more upon the home help service as
their infirmity increases. Further, to combat loneliness in the older people who live by themselves
and are often housebound, to keep them under surveillance in case they need medical attention,
and even to ensure that they have one good meal a day, it is the practice in the City Council to
provide, as far as possible, daily or alternate day visits of short duration rather than longer spells
at weekly or twice weekly intervals.
For many lonely and infirm persons the home help's visit is the high-light in their lives and the
lift to morale by the help's companionship goes far beyond the physical assistance they receive.
Some home helps voluntarily extend their paid-time service by "good-neighbourly" visits to their
"clients" in off-duty hours to ensure that all is well and that they have such rudiments as heating,
hot drinks and a Sunday meal.
Number of home helps:
(a) Joining service during 1966 91
(b) Leaving service during 1966 88
(c) Employed as at 31st December, 1966 233 (178 Full time equivalent)
Although the recruitment figures indicate an increase of three persons only, the total number of
hours worked by the 233 home helps corresponds to an additional 29 full time units employed
compared with 1965.
Details of the number of cases in which this service was provided during 1966 are set out in Table
42, page 84.