London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Ealing 1947
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ealing]
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CHILD LIFE PROTECTION.
The work of supervision of foster-mothers, carried out by the health visitors who have all been appointed child protection visitors, is summarized in the following table:—
| Number of children on the register at the beginning of the year (Number of fostermothers having care of the above children, 35). | 38 |
| Number of children registered during the year | 28 |
| Number of children removed from register during year | 28 |
| Number of children on register at end of year (Number of fostermothers having care of the above children, 33). | 38 |
| Number of visits made by health visitors | 294 |
ADOPTION OF CHILDREN.
Under the Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act, 1939,
Section 7(3) private persons participating in the arrangements for
an adoption must give notice to the welfare authority in whose
district the child is being placed. The duty of supervising these
children, until the adoption is completed, is then placed upon
the health visitors as part of their duties as Child Protection
Visitors. Sixteen persons gave such notice during the year in
accordance with the requirements of the Act, the number of
children involved being 18.
In addition there were 28 other children received for adoption
that were visited by the health visitors. These children had either
been placed by registered adoption societies or direct by the parent,
no third person being involved. Cases such as these are exempted '
from the requirements of Section 7 but do, nevertheless, come in
for supervision either at the request of the adoption society, or
on account of the local court asking for a report from the health
visitor.
MIDWIFERY SERVICE.
The increase in the total number of births has led to increased
demands for the services of the domiciliary midwives and during
the year it was necessary for the staff to be increased from 12 to
14. One of the two new appointments was that of a non-medical
supervisor, who became responsible for the day-to-day supervision
of the work of the midwives under the general supervision of the
senior woman assistant medical officer.