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provided free for all. A Christmas party, Christmas parcels and gifts for the sick were
also provided from this Club and a free pantomime outing.
St. John's Old Folks Club:
This is a social Club with entertainments and outings and the average attendance at
the weekly meetings was 43.
Other Services:
A service for the provision of cheap laundry and a cheap boot and shoe service are
available for old age pensioners. The North Thames Gas Board offers a free service of
inspection of the gas appliances and service pipes in houses of old age pensioners living alone.
The reason for this is to reduce the risk of gas poisoning, a frequent cause of home accidents
and fatalities in old people. The offer includes free replacement of faulty pipes and the
free repair of faulty appliances. To take advantage of this offer, lists of old people living
alone are submitted from the Public Health Department and in due course the homes of
the person nominated on the lists are visited by the Gas Board Officers. Fresh lists continued
to be supplied from time to time.
A visiting library service for old people who were housebound was started early in
1959—operated by the Southall Old People's Welfare Committee, and with distribution
assisted by various young people's groups. This has proved to be a very successful scheme,
not only because the elderly obtain reading material without effort, but because the voluntary
visitors who include young people from the Girl Guides, give pleasure by their interest
in the old people.
Southall Association for the Occupation of the Elderly:
The Work Centre for the Elderly situated in the Municipal Sports Ground, and maintained
by a voluntary association supported in part by Middlesex County Council and
Southall Borough Council, continued to operate throughout 1961.
Various types of simple work were carried out by the old people in quite a satisfactory
way, indeed, as the firms supplying the work were expected to pay the proper rate for work,
it was essential that the work should be completed to their satisfaction. The number of
workers at the end of the year was 50, and various types of work were carried out, carding
buttons, trimming and stamping of metal bolts, trimming of rubber, sorting of porcelain
fittings, etc., and the old people could be put on the jobs which were most suited to their
capabilities.
Any old age pensioner is eligible to apply for work under this scheme and once taken
on is kept on whether his or her output can be considered significant or not. It is realised
by the workers that a flat rate of 10/- per week for a ten hour week is certainly much less
than the younger healthy pensioner would be able to obtain in the labour market, but they
also realise that as they grow older or ill and less able to do very much work this wage will
continue the same. The scheme can never become self-supporting, but it is showing great
benefits in the social and even physical well-being of the people who are working. There
is a very happy atmosphere in the work rooms. Cups of tea are provided during the morning
and afternoon sessions.
National Assistance Act, 1948, section 47:
National Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1951;
No case was dealt with under these powers during 1961.
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