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APPENDIX A
SOCIAL WORKERS AND THE HEALTH VISITING SERVICE
The Report of the Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority and Welfare
Services (The Younghusband Report), was published in 1959. The terms of reference
were the proper field of work, training and recruitment of social workers at all levels in the
local authorities' health and welfare services under the National Health Service and
National Assistance Acts, and in particular whether there was a place for a general purpose
social worker with an in-service training as a basic grade. Although the report was
primarily concerned with the functions of social workers in the health and welfare services,
the working party recognised that the work of other professional staff, such as doctors
and health visitors, also had a social content and that other services such as those of the
children's, education and housing departments, as well as those of voluntary agencies,
also contributed social services which helped to resolve the personal problems of people who
were unable to meet their difficulties without such help. If, therefore, social work was to be
fully effective and the best use to be made of the resources available, there must be a
broader and more flexible grouping of functions, which took account of the range of need
of individuals or families with problems and of the fluctuations to which these needs are
subject from time to time.
The range of need was broadly divided in the report into three categories:
(i) people with straightforward or obvious needs who require material help, some
simple service or a periodic visit;
(ii) people with more complex problems who require systematic help from trained
social workers; and
(iii) people with problems of special difficulty requiring skilled help by professionally
trained and experienced social workers.
It was recommended that the needs of individuals or families in these categories could
be met by the appointment of social workers at three levels, all of whom must have had
adequate training:
(i) welfare assistants, with a short but systematically planned in-service training, to
do the simpler and more straight-forward work under supervision;
(ii) social workers with a common general training in social work to deal with the
main range of the work; and
(iii) professionally trained or experienced social workers to deal with the most
difficult cases and to act as consultants and supervisors.
No precise pattern for the grouping of functions was laid down, for these must vary
according to local circumstances; but five main fields of employment for social workers
were distinguished in the health and welfare services, apart from the home help service:
(i) mental health services;
(ii) services for the care and after-care of the sick;
(iii) social work with families, including homeless families, problem families and
unmarried mothers;
(iv) domiciliary and residential care of the elderly;
(v) services for the handicapped, including blind, deaf and general classes of handicapped
persons.
The working party regarded the home help service as complementary to the health and
welfare services, and considered that social workers should be eligible for appointment
as organisers or deputies, but that appointment as organiser need not necessarily be made
from social workers.
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