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Moral
welfare
associations
In 1955 the Council, also under Section 22 of the National Health Service Act,
1946, paid grants totalling .£9,525 to the five large moral welfare associations working
in London, that is, two Church of England, two Roman Catholic and one Jewish body.
These five associations employ between them a total of approximately 35 paid full-time
moral welfare workers, most of whom are engaged solely on outdoor visiting, and they
also receive considerable assistance from voluntary workers. The headquarters of these
associations are visited periodically by the Council's officers to review the service
provided and to discuss matters of mutual interest. The Council's punched card system
provides statistics of the work done by each association and during 1955 a total of
2,429 expectant or nursing mothers applied for assistance to the welfare workers of
these associations. At the age of three months, 55 per cent, of the illegitimate babies
were still with their mothers and only 18 per cent, had been placed for adoption.
Annual
moral
welfare
conference
A conference is held at the County Hall annually or representatives or tne grantaided
moral welfare associations and other voluntary bodies controlling mother and
baby homes in London when the work of the previous year is reviewed. Problems
discussed at the 1955 conference included :
(a) The lack of accommodation for 'difficult' cases—associations controlling
voluntary homes were urged to be less selective in the types they admitted.
(b) The many unmarried immigrants arriving pregnant in London—the number
of those coming from Jamaica and Eire had nearly doubled during 1955.
(c) The need for hostel accommodation for unmarried working mothers—the
accommodation at Welfare Department hostels was increased by about 85 per cent,
during 1955.
(d) The need for co-operation between the matron of the mother and baby
home, the moral welfare worker and the health visitor to ensure that the unmarried
mother knew of and benefited from the maternity and child welfare services
available locally and that she had regular ante-natal care as early as possible in
pregnancy.
DOMICILIARY MIDWIFERY SERVICE
General and
staffing
the duty to secure provision of an adequate domiciliary midwifery service under
Section 23 (2) of the National Health Service Act, 1946, is discharged through the
Council's own full-time salaried midwives (96), midwives employed by district nursing
associations (34, including supervisory staff) and district midwives employed by
hospitals. Thirteen hospitals, employing 44 midwives (including supervisory and parttime
staff), have areas of practice. These areas are not in all cases adjacent to the hospital
and hospitals carry out the work from their own district homes.
North
Woolwich
Before 1st November, 1955, district midwifery and home nursing services in North
Woolwich were provided on behalf of the Council by the Silvertown and North
Woolwich District Nursing Association. The work of the Association was done mainly
for the West Ham Corporation who decided during the year to provide its own direct
service in Silvertown. The work in the remaining area was insufficient to justify
continuation of the Association, which ceased to work on 1st November, 1955. The
West Ham Corporation now provide midwifery staff to carry out domiciliary confinements
(about 10 a year) in North Woolwich and payment is made to them for each
case.
Service
organisation
The service is centrally administered and supervised by four non-medical supervisors
All the Council's midwives and the midwives of most of the district nursing association:
give the ante-natal care of mothers at the local health authority centres, and work ir
close association with health visitors who are responsible for mothercraft and health
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