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HOME HELP SERVICE
There was a further increase in the number of new cases during the year, and in the number of
cases being helped at any one time. 56 mothers booked a Home Help in advance for domiciliary confinement,
but only 43 received help, the others made alternative arrangements. Six mothers who had not
booked Home Help in advance, were provided with Home Helps at the request of the Midwife, usually where
private arrangements had broken down.
The full charge for the service was increased to 3/6 per hour, and the rate of pay for the Home
Help to 2/101/8d. An extra 2d. per hour was granted to helpers working in homes where there were patients
suffering from tuberculosis or other infectious disease.
During the September poliomyelitis outbreak, a Home Help stayed in at night for 3 weeks in a
home from which both parents had been admitted to Neasden Hospital with poliomyelitis leaving 5 young
children including 18-month-old twins. Efforts had first been made to have the children admitted to
hospital, or taken into child care, but these failed as they were poliomyelitis contacts.
95 Home Helps were employed at the end of 1955, compared with 89 at the end of 1954, and a
male Home Help was employed for 4 months. The appointment of a third Assistant Organiser on a
temporary basis, made it possible to double the number of home visits during 1955. This greatly improved
the supervision of the Home Helps' work and enabled the organisers to keep each case more closely
under review with proper adjustments in the amount of help allocated. This appointment was terminated
on 31.12.55.