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nurses. The Council's staff have not so far carried out professional inspections, but there
is no doubt that in future this work will be increasingly undertaken in the proper
fulfilment of the Council's duties. Such a development would enable the Queen's
Institute to shed their administrative functions, which are strictly within the province of
the local health authorities.
DOMESTIC HELP SERVICE
the domestic help service in London has been until 31st December, 1952, essentially
a day-time service, normally available on five and a half days a week, although a small
number of households (particularly old people living alone) receive some assistance at
week-ends and on bank holidays, when no other help is available. Approval has been
given to the inauguration from 1st January, 1953, of a limited service of night home
helps to attend certain categories of chronic sick persons in their own homes and afford
some measure of relief for one or two nights each week to the relatives of the patient,
who would otherwise be 'on call' every night. This service will operate between 11 p.m.
and 7 a.m. and will be staffed initially by members of the existing day-time service.
They will be paid at slightly higher rates than for day-time work, will work from 11 p.m.
to 7 a.m. and perform those duties for the patient, other than nursing, which a relative
would normally do.
Although no separate statistics have been kept, it is known that a large proportion
of the householders receiving service are aged or chronic sick persons who require
semi-permanent help; this is reflected by an increase in the number of cases on the books
(other than maternity and tuberculous) from 9,634 at 31st December, 1950, to 14,208
at 31st December, 1952. First priority is given to maternity cases and the occasions when
the needs of these people cannot be met are rare: in fact, no maternity case has had to
be refused help in the past two years. The home helps who attend tuberculous households
volunteer to do so and no pressure is put upon them to undertake this work; special
instructions are issued as to the precautions to be taken.
The Council provides overalls for the use of its whole-time home helps and of parttime
workers employed for more than 20 hours a week, the overalls remaining the
property of the Council and being returnable on cessation of employment. A small
quantity of household equipment is held in each of the nine health divisions for use by
home helps attending households where brushes, brooms, etc. are not available, but
ordinarily the provision of this equipment is regarded as the responsibility of the
householder.
The service is organised on a divisional basis, a total of 30 organisers and 32 assistant
organisers, with appropriate clerical assistance, being employed. The organisers' areas
were originally coterminous with metropolitan boroughs, but in the interests of efficiency
and of convenience to the public, adjustments have been made so that each organiser
now has approximately the same responsibilities. The organisers' offices are in the main
situated apart from the divisional health offices and so placed as to be of easy access to
residents in the area served. At 31st December, 1952,196 whole-time and 2,725 part-time
helps were employed, being the equivalent of 1,692 whole-time workers. Applications
for the services of a home help may be made to the organiser's office or to the divisional
health office. The organiser or her assistant will visit the household and assess the amount
of help required, but in cases where this cannot be done at once the health visitor will
often make a preliminary assessment to enable the service to start without delay, the
allocation of help being revised when the organiser has investigated all the circumstances.
The employment of a relative of the householder as a home help may be authorised in
special circumstances provided that the relative has given up paid employment in order
to care for the householder; each case is subject to the approval of the divisional health
committee and is kept under constant review.