View report page

Good progress was made in training for the National Certificate in District Nursing and
all candidates were successful in the examination.
Recruitment for the Part II Midwifery Training School was good and some eighty pupil
midwives passed through the School.
Social Workers
Progress was made during the year, in spite of one frustration after another in the
social work field. During the year the second Area Team was set up in St.James Health
Centre and a system of out of hours duty Welfare Officers introduced - a system whose only
merit was that it was better than the previous system. While on the Mental Health side there
is a well recognised system of statutory officers under the Mental Health Act, on the Welfare
side, where the problems are diverse but homelessness predominates, the system is not so
welI recognised.
In the situation which existed in Waltham Forest in 1970 where social workers were
relatively few (and a number of those had a restricted area of experience) the difficulties of
finding an off duty system acceptable and workable with the right people to serve on it
proved almost insuperable and took up a disproportionate amount of senior staff time.
The Second Area Team was a signal step forward simultaneously relieving pressure
on the facilities available at the Leyton offices. There is no doubt that the Area Team
concept, further strengthened in due course by Child Care Officers, has a great deal to offer
in making a worthwhile impact on the needs of the community in which it is centred.
Welfare Catering
Food Preparation
The Alice Burrell Kitchen produces between 650 and 700 meals daily. A number of
these are supplied to Grosvenor House School, Training and Work Centres, but the kitchen
primarily exists to help the aged and most of the meals cooked are delivered by the Mealson-Wheels
Service or consumed at Luncheon Clubs.
Until the end of 1967 the Alice Burrell Kitchen was unable to supply more than half
our requirements and the remaining meals were supplied by the School Meals Service. Following
the closure of the School Kitchens during school holidays other arrangements became
necessary to deal with the needs of the department. Deep frozen cooked,or partly cooked,
products offered by a number of commercial firms were tried for an experimental period and
the important fact was brought to light that by using this method of catering all the existing
un-met needs of the department could be provided for from the one kitchen.
From the point of view of improvement in production capacity, the introduction of
frozen and convenience foods has been an unqualified success and the potential output has
increased from approximately 400 to 800 meals per day. There have been other advantages.
Good cooks are hard to come by. The techniques of handling frozen foods in the kitchen are
straight forward, requiring staff to follow relatively simple cooking instructions regarding
oven temperatures and time. As a result a good quality product can be achieved by staff who
do not possess the highest degree of cooking skill. However, the Cook-Supervisor does need
to have catering knowledge and organising ability. It is not a simple matter to plate and
pack so many meals in so small a kitchen by 11 o'clock in the morning when delivery
commences. Another advantage concerns costs. Detailed reports have been submitted on
several occasions to the Health and Welfare Committee on this aspect and the one point to
be made now is that because every ounce of food purchased can be served on the plate, i.e.
no preparation wastage, costs can be controlled fairly precisely. In this regard the application
of normal management skills is more important than the possession of specialised
catering knowledge. That is to say that cost control is exercised from the office rather than
the kitchen. - 26 -