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with an average attendance at each meeting of 25-30. The Club meets every Wednesday
and there are lip reading sessions for about 20 minutes at each meeting. The Club has a
Welfare Committee with individual members allocated to certain areas of the Borough,
and in this way absentee members of the Club can be visited and perhaps helped if they are
in any need. Three Old Age Pensioner members were sent for a holiday at reduced charges
during 1956, and the Club was able to raise sufficient money during 1956 to purchase an
amplifier for the meetings. The Club Secretary reports that already some of the members,
as the result of their constant attendance at this Club, are taking a much more active interest
than formerly in doing things and taking part in discussions.
Diabetic Club:
In October 1956 a Club for diabetics residing in Southall and the surrounding districts
was inaugurated in Southall. There was a public opening meeting with the Mayor of
Southall in the Chair, at this meeting the aims and works of the British Diabetic Association
were explained, and the new branch formed. The main purpose of the Club, in addition
to holding social meetings with fellow sufferers from this disease, will be to have specialist
talks, on subjects of particular interest to the group, each month, and to help individual
members with particular problems. The response was very good and at the end of the
year the membership of this club was 147 with a monthly attendance varying between 40 and
70 at each meeting.
Home Advice Group:
In July 1956 a meeting was held of social workers interested in problem families, at
which a talk was given by a member of the London Council of Social Service on Home
Advice Groups as they are operating in different parts of the country. Those present
agreed to become members of a Committee to deal with this subject. The constitution of
this Committee was the Housing Estates Manager, Area Children's Officer, Area Welfare
Officer, Inspector, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Area Health
Visitor, Secretary, London Council of Social Service, Area Officer, National Assistance
Board, Vicar, St. John's Church, Southall, and Senior Probation Officer. The Housing
Estates Manager reported that the Southall Borough Council was willing to sponsor a Home
Advice Group and that premises and a leader would be found shortly, and the Group
actually started functioning on the 4th October, 1956 in a room at The Grange, Southall.
The Group leader, trained in this type of work, began the Group as a little social gathering
where mothers could bring their children and their problems and be given help in the solution
of home making difficulties, financial worries and so on. By the end of the year the
membership of this Group was about 19 of whom 9 were regular attenders. The main
function of the Committee was to supply membership for the group by informing any
mothers with problems of the facilities available.
Welfare of the Blind and Partially Sighted:
The County Council is responsible under the National Assistance Act, 1948, for the
provision of welfare services for the blind and partially-sighted.
There are resident in the Borough 99 blind and 14 partially-sighted persons. 13
blind people are in full-time employment. Of these, 2 are in Workshops for the Blind,
and receiving augmentation and supplementation of earnings from the County Council,
and one is working as a Home Worker under the Scheme of the Royal London Society for
the Blind, and is also receiving augmentation of earnings from the County Council.
The majority of blind people are not available for, or not capable of, training and
employment owing to age or infirmity or for some other reason.
The County Council provides a Home Teaching Service for the visitation of blind and
partially-sighted people in their own homes. The duties of the Home Teachers are to
advise blind and partially-sighted persons in all problems relating to their welfare and of
all the available social services to assist them in overcoming the effects of their disabilities,
to give instruction in Braille and Moon systems of raised type, in communication by means of
the deaf-blind manual alphabet, and in handcrafts. A handcrafts class is held fortnightly
at the King's Hall Methodist Church, South Road, Southall.
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