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Telephone
Hornchurch 52555
Health & Welfare Department
Billet Lane
Hornchurch.
To: The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the London Borough of Havering
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I present my report on the work of the health and welfare
department of the Borough for the year 1969.
During the year the eventual division of the department
into two separate parts became inevitable as a result of the
Government's acceptance of the Seebohm report. The future
health department will include domiciliary midwifery, family
planning, clinic services, health visiting, district nursing, the
school health service, control of infectious disease and all the
environmental health services. The welfare, mental health, home
help services, the day nurseries and registration of child minders,
etc., will transfer, together with the present Children's Department
into a new Social Services Department.
Since the foundation of the Borough one of my highest
management priorities has been the co-ordination of services.
An elderly, disabled or sick person should not be affected by
administrative divisions. Co-ordination is required not only
between health and welfare, but between the various Council
departments, the three divisions of the National Health Service,
other statutory departments, and the essential field of voluntary
activity. I can but trust that the progress which has been made to
this end will not be lost as a result of the separation of health
from welfare.
In other respects the year was one of continual financial
stringency. The greatest pressures were for more purpose built
accommodation for the elderly, more hostels for the mentally
handicapped and for more staff, particularly district nurses,
health visitors, speech therapists and social workers. Some
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