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36
This duty was transferred to the Council by the National Health Service Act and is
being continued. There is the closest co-operation. Unmarried mothers, including
any who need a home and cannot be looked after during this crisis in their lives at
their own or their parents' home, are referred to the moral welfare workers. The
health visitors see that the maternity and child welfare services are made available to
them. Where necessary, financially necessitous cases are referred to the Welfare
Department and women considered unsuitable for admission to voluntary homes are
cared for in homes maintained by that department.
Care of
illegitimate
children
separated
from their
mothers
{d) Under the Children Act, 1948, the duty of ensuring the welfare of " deprived
children "will fall to the Children's Officer. Pending the setting up of the Children
Department the Public Health Department has continued (i) to administer a scheme
of guaranteed payments to foster mothers, and (ii) to obtain residential nursery
places for illegitimate children. Grants amounting to about £2,800 a year, have
also been paid to three voluntary homes for babies containing seventy-four cots.
Holiday homes
The demand for recuperative holidays for children has outstripped the accommodation
immediately available, but measures are being taken to make good the
deficiency. The accommodation used includes a home transferred from the Shoreditch
Borough Council under the provisions of the National Health Service Act, 1946.
Considerable use has been made of the services of the Invalid Children's Aid Association
in placing unaccompanied children in suitable holiday homes, the Council
paying the Association £1 for each child placed, over and above the charges made by
the homes.
Demands for recuperative holidays for expectant and nursing mothers and their
children have been met in full. In addition to direct placing by the Council in
various approved private holiday homes, it has been possible by arrangement with the
Bermondsey Borough Council to send some of these people to a home owned and
maintained by that Council.
The following is a statement of the persons placed in holiday homes between
5th July and 31st December, 1948:—
Unaccompanied Under 5 children School Nursing and expectant mothers and their
years children children
637 1,098 Mothers 128
Children 145
Meals
Miscellaneous services
Provision of meals on medical recommendation for nursing mothers and young
children has continued in some divisions and flat rate charges of 1s. for the mother's
meal and 6d. for the child's have been fixed.
Birth Control
The Family Planning Association has been granted facilities for holding birth
control clinics in premises transferred to the Council under the provisions of the
National Health Service Act, 1946, existing clinics of this nature being continued.
Tests
Arrangements are nearing completion for pregnancy diagnosis tests to be carried
out in cases where confirmation of pregnancy is desired, and for blood samples of all
expectant mothers attending the Council's ante-natal centres for the first time to be
tested for Rhesus factor and Wassermann reaction (subject to availability of staff
and serum at the hospitals undertaking the work).
Other
Services
Other miscellaneous services in existence on 5th July, 1948 (e.g., ante-natal and
post-natal exercises, classes in sewing, cookery, mothercraft, etc.), have been continued
and are being reviewed from time to time to see what extensions are practicable
and desirable.