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20. HOME HELP SERVICE
The Home Help Service is provided by the Council under Section 29 of the
National Health Service Act. Four types of service are provided:-
1) The Standard Service
This provides help in acute illness, at home confinements, for
tuberculosis cases, and for the chronic sick and aged. The major
part of the case load is composed of the chronic sick.
2) Family Help Service
This is to support the family when the mother is either temporarily
absent from home, or due to fecklessness or some other reason is
unable to cope with her family duties. The family help service may be
residential or non-residential.
3) The Good Neighbour Service
This is an arrangement by which regular help is given by a neighbour
working under the Home Help scheme.
4) The Night Service
This operates from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. to give relief to the family of
seriously ill patients.

The establishment of home helps is 260 which is partly filled by 329 parttime
and 11 full-time staff to give an equivalent of 208 full-time home helps.
Recruitment has always been a problem, and during the year a re-organization of the
service was agreed by the Personal Health Services Committee, which it is hoped
will begin to have a beneficial effect next year.
The re-organization is designed to ensure the most efficient utilization of the
limited labour available by the modernization of methods. At the same time it is
intended to increase the flexibility of the service to meet the future needs not only
of the health department, but of the allied social service departments of Welfare
and Children.
The following measures have been agreed:-
1) The creation of posts of Home Assistants at a higher grade of salary
so that a nucleus may be formed of the most capable home helps, to
undertake the more difficult cases and control the other home help
staff where occasion arises. It is hoped that this promotion structure
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