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Occasional creches—These are provided at selected welfare centres for minding children
aged 2-5 years for short periods to enable the mothers to visit hospitals, attend to shopping
and other domestic duties, or to take part in activities at the centres in which the creche is
held. A growing demand for the service has led to the opening of these creches at seven
welfare centres in recent years.
Child minders—The Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act, 1948 requires those
women who wish to daily mind for reward more than two children to whom they are not
related to apply to the local health authority for registration. By the end of 1964 there were
only eight statutory minders.
The Council also encourages the voluntary registration of women who wish to mind one
or two children daily. In 1949 only eleven such minders were registered. This number
increased steadily until in 1957 it reached a peak of 133 minders on the voluntary register;
since then fewer women have come forward and at the end of 1964 only 60 names were on
the register.
Recuperative holiday scheme—The demand for recuperative holidays for all age groups
has shown a continual decrease year by year from the peak in 1950 when a total of 2,381
applications for this service was received. During 1964, this number had dropped to just
over 1,000.
Loan of home nursing equipment—An increasing number of handicapped and aged persons
are now able to remain in their own homes with the supporting health and welfare services
now available. One of these facilities is the loan by the Council of home nursing equipment.
This loan scheme has developed rapidly from very small beginnings in 1949 and items
now loaned, without charge, include special beds, Dunlopillo mattresses, hoists of various
kinds, wheel chairs, walking aids, commodes, etc. At the end of 1964 some 280 of these
articles were on loan.
Home help service—The picture of the rapid development of this service in the division
over the sixteen years is akin to that which took place throughout the county. The service
inherited in the division in July 1948 was very limited and in some parts of the area almost
non-existent. The extent of the expansion over the years, despite the difficulties experienced
in recruiting suitable home helps is illustrated by the following statistics:
Year ending
31.12.48
31.12.64
Number of home helps employed
Whole-time Part-time
3 78
21 274
While in the last six months of 1948 only 432 persons in all received home help, the
number of households actually being attended on 31 December 1964 was 2,355. Much
credit is due to the organising staff for the service now available.
Foot clinics—No municipal foot clinics were in existence in the division in 1948. For a
number of years thereafter Ministry of Health restrictions made it impossible to initiate
such a service. In 1954, however, two foot sessions a week were authorised. Development
since then has been very slow, mainly because of the difficulty in this part of London of
recruiting chiropodists. Nevertheless, gradual improvements were made and further foot
clinics opened. By the end of 1964 there were such clinics at six centres, with a total of 28
sessions weekly. In addition, some foot treatment service was provided by old peoples'
welfare organisations, grant-aided by the Council.
Menial health—The Mental Health Act, 1959 emphasised the urgent need for developing
community care services for the mentally ill and considerable progress to this end is being
made in this division though much remains to be done. An increasing number of mentally
disturbed persons are being referred to the mental health team by doctors, hospitals, courts,
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