View report page

Ho-nc Helps.—The Committee considered the question of the employment of
Home Helps in cases of confinement in the Borough, to assist in the management of
the homes of persons requiring such assistance. Their employment by Voluntary
Associations in the Borough have not proved a success, due to the difficulty of
obtaining a sufficient number of the right sort of persons to undertake the work.
The matter was carefully considered, and it was referred to a Sub-Committee to
prepare a scheme.
The Sub-Committee, after due consideration, submitted two alternative
schemes (a) Maternity Helps ; (b) Home Helps on lines laid down by the Ministry
of Health.
The Maternity Committee carefully considered these two schemes, but the
members were divided in their opinion as to the merits of each of the two schemes,
but after slightly modifying the former, it was adopted, and approved by the
Council. The Ministry of Health, however, were not prepared to approve the
scheme submitted, but were prepared to consider a proposal on the part of the
Borough Council to organise a service of Home Helps whose duties should be purely
domestic as laid down in their Circular, and should not include any work which
properly belongs to the sphere of a trained nurse or midwife.
Supply of Milk under the Maternity and Infant
Welfare Scheme.
The Council commenced giving milk to nursing and expectant mothers and to
children under five years of age in 1918 by granting £10 to the Stepney School for
Mothers.