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There was as usual shortage of staff in various sections of the Department, notably the nursing
grades and dental surgery assistants. The recruitment of public health inspectors improved marginally
during the year.
The year 1969 saw the retirement from the Department of three senior officers, Mr. H. G. E. Brown
(who had served 46 years in local government); Mr. C. F. Brockett (40 years) and Mr. C. Chesterman
(33 years). All these officers had joined the staff of the new City of Westminster Health Department
in April 1965 and brought with them a wealth of knowledge and experience. Prior to the amalgamation
of the boroughs, Mr. Brown had been Chief Clerk in the St. Marylebone Health Department;
Mr. Brockett was formerly Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector with the old Westminster City
Council, and Mr. Chesterman had been a senior public health inspector with the Paddington Borough
Council. Each of these officers had devoted a life-time's service to local government and we wished
them well in their retirement which we hope will be long, happy and healthy.
In my Annual Report for 1968 I made reference to the various reports which had been issued
(Maud, Mallaby and Seebohm) which related to the future structure of local government and the
social services. I also recorded that the then Minister of Health had issued a Green Paper on the
administrative structure of the medical and related services in England and Wales. All these reports
were referred by the City Council to a special Review of Management Committee which was set up
for the purpose. This Committee reported to the Council in July 1969 when it was decided that the
fourteen standing committees which had been set up in 1965 should be reduced to a total of nine.
Included in this re-arrangement of functions was the creation of a Social Services Committee which
became responsible for matters formerly referred to the Health, Welfare and Children's Committees.
The first step was therefore taken towards the recommendation of the Seebohm Committee that a
unified Social Services Department should be established within each major local authority.
Concurrent with this reorganisation of the Council's Committee structure, the Local Authority
Social Services Bill was introduced into Parliament which was intended to put into effect the
recommendations of the Seebohm Committee. This Bill received the Royal Assent in May 1970 and
inter alia required each local health authority to appoint a Director of Social Services and set up a
Social Services Department. To this new department will be transferred all the social work content of
the community services at present provided by the City Council's Health Department including day
nurseries, child minding, social worker services, mental health, and home help. The City Council's
newly appointed Director of Social Services will therefore become responsible for a number of the
Health Department staff who, since 1965, have built up excellent health services. I know that all
members of the Health Department staff who are transferred to the Social Services Department will
continue to provide the same loyal support and efficient service which they gave to me and to the
citizens of Westminster since the Department was formed in 1965. By the time my next Annual
Report is published in July 1971 this transfer will have been accomplished and I would therefore take
this opportunity of expressing my warmest thanks to all the members of my staff concerned for their
loyal assistance and the good work they have undertaken particularly in the somewhat difficult times
immediately following reorganisation.
It is impossible not to feel some regret that staff and services must be lost, but it is inevitable in any
family that from time to time growing children must reach maturity and should set up house for
themselves. Local authority social services had their birth and grew up in forward looking health
departments and it would be strange if in the future there were not more offspring even if these are
conceived as the result of a new marriage.
Towards the end of 1969 the Government issued the Green Paper (Mark II) on the future structure
of the national health service. This paper proposes that some of the services at present provided by
local authorities shall, at a time be to decided, be transferred to Area Health Authorities which are to
be established. Briefly, the local authority health services will be divided, all the functions relating to
the medical and nursing services being transferred to an area health authority, leaving the City
responsible for environmental health as were the Metropolitan Boroughs before 1965.
The City Council's Health Department and all its present functions will, therefore, be subjected at
varying stages to a tripartite division—part being transferred to a Social Services Department in the
relatively near future; part being transferred to an area health authority to be set up at some time in
the future and possibly 4-5 years distant; and part remaining with the local authority.
An added complication arises from the proposed transfer of responsibility for junior training schools
for mentally handicapped children from the local health authority to the Education Authority. The