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7
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF HEALTH
Health, Welfare & Children's Department,
Hanover House,
Lyon Road,
Harrow, Middlesex.
To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
London Borough of Harrow.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
1 have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health and
sanitary conditions of the district and on the health, welfare and children's
services provided by the Borough for the year 1968.
This year of nineteen hundred and sixty eight will, no doubt, be known
as "the year of Seebohm" because the long awaited Report of the Committee
on Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services was
published in July. It is peculiar in that having produced much evidence of
the need to keep health and social services together—stating that "the
present barriers between departments and specialisms should be broken
down"—it then finally comes out with a recommendation that the health
and social services should function as separate entities! This Borough
could be said to have in a way anticipated Seebohm when, upon its
formation in April, 1965, it decided to amalgamate all its social services
into one department and abolish the former "tripartite system" of
administration with separate health, welfare and children's departments.
The majority of cases dealt with by the department, be they individuals
or family groups, have problems with a socio-medical background.
Naturally in order to give assistance, all aspects of the case, social and
medical, must be considered. These various aspects are so closely interwoven
with each other that they must, of necessity, be considered in the
conglomorate and not in the particular. Therefore, full co-operation and
consultation between all types of social worker is a sine qua non, and how
better can this be achieved than in a combined health, welfare and
children's department as we have in the London Borough of Harrow.
It is pleasing to report that during the year 1968, the department
carrying out the various statutory services prescribed for a local authority
by the National Health Service Act, the National Assistance Acts and the
Children's Acts, continued to work as a closely knit unit. No service is
perfect but I think it can be said that the Borough provides very reasonable
personal social services for its 208,220 burgesses. Weaknesses in the service
are acknowledged but "Rome was not built in a day" and given time and
money these will undoubtedly be corrected and improved.