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26
Persons in Need of Care and Attention
It is the duty of every local authority under S.21 of the National
Assistance Act to provide (a) residential accomodation for persons who
by reason of age, infirmity or any other circumstances are in need of care
and attention which is not otherwise available to them and (b) temporary
accommodation for persons who are in urgent need thereof.
The powers of the County Council to provide welfare services are
set out in Section 29 of the National Assistance Act which reads
"The local authority shall have power to make arrangements for promoting
the welfare of persons to whom this Section applies, namely,
persons who are blind, deaf or dumb, or other persons who are
substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital
deformity or such other disabilities as may be prescribed by the Minister."
The arrangements that may be made include those (a) for informing
persons to whom the arrangements relate of the available services, (b)
giving such persons instruction in their own home or elsewhere in methods
of overcoming the effects of their disabilities, (c) for providing workshops
and hostels, (d) for providing the persons with work in their own
homes or elsewhere, (e) for helping them to dispose of the produce of
their work, (f) for providing them with recreational facilities in their own
homes or elsewhere, (g) for compiling and maintaining classified registers
of such persons.
The County Council in the administration of the service for the blind
and the partially sighted have continued to draw on the help of the
voluntary associations who provided these services before 1948.
In regard to the schemes for the handicapped persons other than the
blind and the partially sighted, the first step is for the handicapped person
(who must be substantially handicapped) to register. This he does by
communicating with the Chief Welfare Officer at 1 Queen Anne's Gate
Buildings, Dartmouth Street, S. W. I.
For the administration of the Welfare Service the County is divided
into the same ten areas as for the County Council's functions under Part
III of the National Health Service Act. Acting under the supervision of
the Chief Welfare Officer for the County there is in each Area a Welfare
Officer. The one for this district is Mr. H. G. Plummer, "Kynaston
Court," Boxtree Road, Harrow Weald. The County Council now has
some 2,600 beds, most of them in about fifty old people's homes, in and
around the County ; the only one of these homes in this district is that at
79 Bessborough Road. In addition, the County Council pays for about
1,100 beds in homes run by voluntary organisations.
The Aged
Co-ordinating Officer. In March, 1959 members of the Council
discussed with representatives of the Old People's Welfare Committee the
activities of the Committee, having in mind particularly, extensions of the
ways in which help could be provided and the desirability, without
interfering with the actual work done by the voluntary agencies, of