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Health and Welfare Department,
Gateway House,
322 Regents Park Road,
Finchley, N.3.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Council of the London Borough of Barnet:
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with pleasure that I present my Report of the Health and Welfare Service of the Borough
for the year 1967.
In my Report dealing with the year 1966, I referred to the fact that consolidation was still
very much the order of the day, but I can say that in 1967 considerable advances were made and
though the development of the services, by reason of economic considerations, could not progress
as completely planned, I am confident that the limited planned progress made augurs well for the
future. The compilation of the Report follows the same pattern as in previous years and covers
all the main facets of the Department's work.
I should like, however, to draw attention to several new developments; first of which was the
establishment of a Special Investigation Clinic at Vale Drive Clinic for the treatment of enuretic
children. This service is under the direction of my Deputy and the enthusiasm with which it has
been received and the results achieved are most gratifying.
The second new development was the establishment of an In-Service Training Course which
provides for approximately 30 persons of all disciplines within the Health and Welfare Department
(mainly new recruits) being brought together to hear lectures given by Principal and Senior Officers
on the responsibilities and work of the various sections of the Department and additionally talks
by officers of other Departments involved in Social Services. In my opinion, this form of InService
Training is of great value to the staff who are able to further their knowledge by taking
part in discussion groups which follow each series of weekly lectures at present spread over
five weeks but I anticipate the need for having to extend the course over a greater number of
weeks. A course such as this provides an economic basis of training, which otherwise might
have to be provided for by outside attendance. The enthusiasm with which the lecturers gave
their services and the response from participants indicated to me the value of Local Authority
officer participation at the base of operations.
The corrected birth rate for Barnet indicates a continuing downward trend, the figure for 1967
being 14.3 compared to 14.6 (1966) and 15.3 (1965). The infant mortality rate showed an increase
from 13.3 per 1000 live births in 1966 to 16.0; whilst representing an increase from 62 infant
deaths in 1966 to 73 in 1967, this is nevertheless much lower than the figure for England and
Wales. The statistics in relation to neo-natal and early neo-natal deaths are similarly affected.
There was one maternal death and the peri-natal mortality rate i.e. stillbirths and deaths under
one week of age was 23.3 per 1000 total live and stillbirths compared to 24.2 for the Greater
London Area and 25.4 for England and Wales.
There has been no serious outbreak of infectious disease during the year.
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