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Staff training
There was full recognition by the department of the importance of a comprehensive
and adaptable programme of staff training which resulted in a steady expansion in the
volume and variety of the facilities provided.
With, as its main objective, improved recruitment in the grade of health visitor, the
department from 1948 appointed each year a number of student health visitors and arranged
for their attendance at courses of instruction leading to the health visitors' certificate.
By 1964 the annual number of such students had risen to 75, the majority being trained
on a special course provided by the London University Institute of Education, in association
with the Council. Over 600 students have qualified in this way, of whom nearly one half
were still serving with the Council as health visitors or in higher positions. Without this
scheme the department would have been unable to maintain an adequate health visiting
service in London.
The training of nursery students in day nurseries, started by the metropolitan borough
councils before 1948, was fostered; by the end of 1964 over 1,500 students had successfully
completed the two-year course and obtained the certificate of the National Nursery
Examination Board. There were then 46 day nurseries providing practical training for
nursery students with the approval of the Ministry of Health.
The department welcomed the lead given in 1959 by the Younghusband Committee
towards improved facilities for the training of social workers. The annual number sent to
full-time courses arranged by universities and professional bodies increased until in the
autumn of 1964 ten social workers in the department, nine of them employed in the mental
health service, were embarked on one- and two-year full-time courses besides those
attending a part-time course. In addition, by that time the annual number of supervisory
staff of training centres for the mentally subnormal who were taking one-year full-time
diploma courses had risen to six.
Regular refresher training, on the basis of courses of one to two weeks' duration every
five years for medical, health visiting, school nursing and midwifery staff was provided
through professional bodies to keep the staff abreast of current professional thought and
practice. In other instances, specific training needs were effectively and economically
met by ' in-service ' courses arranged by the department. In this way specialised training
was provided for many categories of staff, notably medical and nursing.
Food handlers
Since 1953 it has been the practice to arrange for employees of the School Meals and
Catering, Education, Children's and Welfare departments who handle food to have
appropriate bacteriological examination before returning to work after suffering from
illnesses which might give rise to food-borne infection. Staff who have been in contact
with such illnesses in their own homes are similarly scrutinised. The numbers of staff
referred for investigation during recent years are set out below.
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
Contacts 205 118 114 212 147
111 419 307 375 553 395
Allowed to resume work after examination or fixed period
of exclusion 578 406 444 728 508
Resigned, retired or died 23 16 28 28 25
Excluded from work and referred to own doctor for treatment 23 3 17 9 9
135