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Daily Guardians
A scheme is in being whereby persons caring for children outwith the scope
of the Act voluntarily register as daily guardians with the Health Department and
are paid a small weekly fee by the Council for each child minded. The children
are required to attend the neighbouring child welfare clinic. By these means, supervision
to ensure that standards are kept at optimum level is possible for those who
otherwise would be subject to no control. At the end of the year, there were 19
children being cared for by 16 registered daily guardians. A large number of
registered daily guardians have not had any children in their care.
Problem Families
In order to co-ordinate the personal services of the various departments of
the Council, a co-ordination committee, consisting of a nominated officer from each
of the departments concerned — Town Clerk's, Health, Children's, Welfare, Housing,
and Education — was established. The Health Department is represented by
the Principal Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Welfare. The committee met
regularly throughout the year and one of the main outcomes of these meetings was
the establishment of a "Problem Families" register. Each family was the subject
of a conference between the caseworkers of the departments concerned, and at the
end of the year there were five families on the register. In addition, the co-ordination
committee arranged for a meeting to be held in each part of the Borough for
the local field workers to get to know each other. These meetings, which proved
very successful, were held at various clinics, and by the end of the year meetings
had been held in Lower Edmonton and Enfield Wash; it was proposed to hold
further meetings in other areas in 1967.
The committee also discussed Joint Circular 7/66 and 9/66 of the Department
of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health regarding the co-ordination of
the Education, Health and Welfare Departments' services for handicapped children
and this is reported in the section on the School Health service.
Population Screening for Carcinoma of the Cervix of the Uterus
The Council received in December, 1965, Ministerial approval for this scheme
as part of its arrangements for the prevention of illness under Section 28 of the
National Health Service Act, 1946.
The service commenced early in 1966 with one session per week at three
suitably situated clinics for the taking of a total of 60 specimens a week until
further diagnostic facilities could be provided by the North East Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Board.
At present women between the ages of 35 and 60 years are eligible, and checkups
are recommended at five-yearly intervals. The patient and her family doctor
are informed of the result, and treatment where necessary is arranged or carried
out by the family doctor.
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