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in the borough provide day centres combined with their old people's
clubs.
When the two new welfare homes are built in the Alpha Road
area of Surbiton and Blagdon Road, New Maiden, it is planned to
have a day centre attached with a capacity for 40 persons each, for
the provision of social and occupational entertainment as well as
the provision of mid-day meals.
WELFARE OF THE HANDICAPPED
Section 29 of the National Assistance Act, 1948, provides
for local welfare authorities to promote the welfare of persons who
are blind, deaf or dumb, and other persons who are substantially
and permenently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital
deformity or such other disabilities as may be prescribed by the
Department of Health and Social Security.
Established over 100 years ago on a voluntary basis, the
welfare of the blind is probably one of the oldest organised welfare
services in England, The work grew through voluntary effort until
The Blind Persons Act of 1920 made it the responsibility of local
authorities. The present day service is provided under the National
Assistance Act 1948, which left the general welfare duties with local
authorities and transferred the payment of purely financial aid to
the National Assistance Board (now incorporated in the Department of
Health and Social Security).
On the advice of the Minister of Health (as was then the
case) schemes for the deaf and other handicapped persons have been
operated by local authorities since 1951 and in 1960 these were made
mandatory.
A Committee of Inquiry on the Rehabilitation;, Training and
Resettlement of Disabled Persons (the Piercy Committee) reported in
1957 on the need for the development of services to disabled persons.
The Committee emphasised that more services were required to provide
occupational home work, personal aids and the carrying out of
structural alterations in disabled persons' homes, and stressed the
need for day clubs or centres for the handicapped. The Committee
focused on the disabled person as a human being and a social unit and
pointed out that there was a need for co-operation between all agencies,
particularly between voluntary and statutory bodies. It is in the
spirit of the recommendations of the Piercy Committee that the services
for the disabled are being developed in the borough.