View report page

27
The Aged
In 1950 the Minister of Health sent a circular letter to local authorities
containing suggestions for developing better collaboration between local
authorities and local voluntary organisations in promoting the welfare
of old people. On this, a conference of representatives of appropriate
organisations was convened; and at this it was decided to set up an Old
People's Welfare Committee. This Committee appointed two main subcommittees.
One was the Home Visiting sub-committee which arranged
for lonely old people to be visited in their homes; the other was a Meals
Services sub-committee which was responsible for running the luncheon
clubs at the Belmont and the North Harrow Assembly Halls where old
people can obtain a mid-day meal at low cost, and also provided the
meals distributed by the W.V.S. 'Meals on Wheels' Service.
The Council made grants for these services; and also made a grant
of £100 to the British Red Cross Society to extend their chiropody service.
The Council's direct statutory powers in regard to the aged are very
limited, and are not restricted to the aged as such. There is the power
under Section 47 of the National Assistance Act, 1948 under which a
Court Order can be applied for to ensure the compulsory removal to
hospital or a welfare home of a person, not necessarily elderly, where
this is considered necessary. There is the power under Section 84 of the
Public Health Act, 1936 to arrange in special circumstances for the
laundering of articles. There is the authority under Section 50 of the
National Assistance Act 1948 to arrange for the burial or cremation of
a body when no other provision is made. Indirectly the Council by using
the provisions of two Acts, S.4 of the Physical Training and Recreation
Act 1937 and S.31 of the National Assistance Act 1948 can help by making
grants to such voluntary organisations as the Harrow Old People's
Welfare Committee.
Although the Council is not directly responsible for the administration
of the services provided by the Old People's Welfare Committee,
there is a link in two ways. The one is by some of the members of the
Council being members of that Committee; the other is by reports of
the activities of the Old People's Welfare Committee being presented to
the General Purposes Committee. No Committee of the Council though,
either General Purposes Committee or Public Health Committee, has
any direct powers for helping them. Because of the nature of the difficulties
of some of the aged, their problems and the solution of them are closely
related to other matters about which the Public Health Committee have
responsibilities, and an indication of the growing closeness of that Committee's
relationship was that when a conference on the Elderly in the
Community was arranged in January by the Central Council for Health
Education, the Chairman of the Public Health Committee and the Medical
Officer of Health were invited to attend.
As this was apparently to become a growing problem, the Public
Health Committee at one of their meetings suggested a conference should
held between representatives of the Council and the Harrow Old
People's Welfare Committee. The General Purposes Committee appointed