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79
The income from the service is about 7 per cent. of the cost and many households
enjoy a free service. The needs of each household are reviewed periodically and such
modifications as may be necessary are made in the number of hours' service provided
and the charge made. The normal service for maternity cases is 44 hours a week for
two weeks.
Under arrangements made with the National Institute of Houseworkers, Ltd., a total
of 191 of the Council's home helps were tested in 1949. 166 were successful and were
awarded the diploma of the Institute, in virtue of which their rate of pay was enhanced
by 1d. an hour. A short refresher course was organised in association with the Institute
in November, 1951, and was attended by 14 of: the Council's home helps, but it was
not an unqualified success. No further arrangements for courses or tests have been made,
and it may well be that future plans in London, as in other parts of the country, may be
made in association with the education service rather than with an outside body.
In some areas specially selected home helps have been allocated to households which
presented certain social problems—e.g. neglectful mothers; parent discharged from mental
hospital, etc. It has been found that a contribution can be made by the home help, by
example and advice, towards the rehabilitation of the family. In one health division a
home help has been allowed to work with a Family Service Unit to help problem
families who come within the categories set out in section 29 of the National Health
Service Act, 1946.
One way in which the domestic help service could be of further use to the community
is, to look after children in their own homes when they are temporarily deprived of the
care of both parents. It is thought that a scheme which would overcome the need for
such children to be taken into residential care under the Children Act, 1948, with
consequent emotional disturbance, could not but be of benefit. A certain amount of
help is already given in some of these cases, but it is a matter of great difficulty to arrange
for morning and evening care (when most of the home helps have their own domestic
commitments to consider) and it is not easy to see at present how help of this kind can
be extended. The suggestion is being explored that a home help might sleep in the home,
her duties starting with the preparation of the children's tea and ending with the children's
departure for school or a day nursery on the following morning. Negotiations as to an
appropriate rate of pay are in progress; it is not yet apparent whether the cost of such a
service would be prohibitive.

Although every effort is made to supply at least a little service to all who need it,
some households have had to be refused or service deferred because of inability to supply,
but this number was smaller in 1952 (192) than in 1951 (385). Help is never refused to a
F