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Mention must be made of the social work arising from the Council's development over
the years of schemes for improving the standard of its service for children with defective
hearing. A divisional audiology clinic has functioned for 12 years and for four years there
has been there a teacher of such children. In addition, the divisional social worker has been
given special responsibility for the maintenance of a divisional register of the deaf.
Perhaps the most important change has been the appointment of the divisional social
worker as secretary of the divisional co-ordination committee, which deals with the problems
of families whose activities or social weaknesses, for one reason or another, often
need the assistance of social workers in a number of departments of the Council or in the
employ of other statutory bodies or voluntary organisations. From 1957, when the divisional
social worker assumed this function, the extent of the work involved has mounted year by
year and latterly much time has been devoted to trying to prevent families from breaking up
because of eviction. Case conferences, at each of which a number of families are discussed,
now have to be held at least weekly and, because the discussions have to be thorough, are
very time-consuming.
One aspect of this work in this part of London which calls for special mention is the
amount of effort arising from the rehousing into the area of difficult families from Welfare
department accommodation in other parts of London. In addition to their other troubles,
many of these families are not familiar with the East End and settlement here is not always
easy for them. The division now has two full-time family case workers for intensive effort
with ' problem ' families and the divisional social worker and some of her staff also undertake
a small amount of this work. The divisional social worker herself now supervises case
work students.
DIVISION 6, comprising the boroughs of Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich
Dr. F. R. Waldron reports:
Premises—New purpose designed clinic accommodation was opened at the Tenants'
Clubroom, Anstridge Road, Avery Hill, Eltham, in July and named the Anstridge Welfare
Centre. These new premises replaced a temporary centre conducted in a church hall in the
area served.
Maternity services—Since catchment areas were delineated by the South East Regional
Hospital Board, pressure on local units decreased as far as Greenwich and part of Deptford
were concerned. The district of Deptford, which was transferred to the Lewisham hospital
catchment area, continued to pose problems in connection with booking of ‘ social need'
cases. Early discharge schemes from the St. Alfege's hospital and Lewisham hospital units
worked well and contributed a large measure of easement to the general problem.
Ante-natal care—The general practitioner obstetrician scheme, which started in 1957 at
one centre and with one general practitioner and covered the whole area of the division by
1961, has since worked very smoothly to the general benefit of the ante-natal case.
Prophylaxis—An assessment of the results of the quadruple vaccine trial is still awaited.
During the Autumn months the division took part in a measles vaccine trial which was still
proceeding at the end of the year.
Chiropody—Due to staffing difficulties the maintenance of a full service continued to
present difficulties. Credit is due to the staff who made every effort to meet the demand of the
priority classes, but at times the waiting period was inevitably longer than desirable.
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