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At the end of 1968 the mothers, who decided to keep their babies were
living in the following way
Had returned to parents and relatives 28
Had married putative father 10
Had married other than putative father 5
Were co-habiting 15
Living in lodgings or own home 8
Had accepted residential work 3
Mothers who parted with their babies or lost them
By adoption 31
Still births 1
Miscarriages 4
Terminated 4
In care 2
Arrangements incomplete at end of year 4
Figures showing steady decrease in numbers of new cases reported
1966 1967 1968
175 147 115
Figures showing decrease in numbers requiring residential care.
1966 1967 1968
Shelters 33 26 21
Homes & Hostels 86 67 44
Surveys
The department has taken part in a number of surveys in association with various
research bodies during the year. These include a survey into children suffering from
spina bifida (Greater London Council); a study of mothers of children born with
anencephaly or spina bifida cystica in the Greater London area (Institute of Child
Health); survey of childhood cancers (Oxford University); nutrition survey of preschool
children (Department of Health and Social Security); investigation into the
possible virus aetiology of mental deficiency (St. George's Hospital Medical School,
London); survey of district nursing (Social Medicine Unit, Guy's Hospital Medical
School); study of the mucopolysaccharidoses (Galton Laboratory of the Department of
Human Genetics and Biometry, University College, London).
In my report for 1967, I stated that the department had taken part, in association
with the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention, into an investigation into
accidents occurring to children under five years old. A summary of the Medical Commission's
report is quoted below: —
"One hundred accident incidents notified by hospitals, and occasionally by
general practitioners, to local health authorities for full social investigation by
Health Visitors, were collected in each of six areas — 50 consecutively as notified
from 1st January, 1967, and another 50 from 1st July, 1967. The areas selected
were — Edinburgh, Oxford, Richmond upon Thames, Sheffield, Tiverton and
Winchester. The questionnaire — of which 583 were fully completed and another
10 completed in part — was designed to probe in depth the accident incidence.
The data so collected are divisible into two broad groups — data referable directly
to the accident, and "background data" of the physical and social environments.
Since many Health Visitors were involved a unifying assessment of each questionnaire
was made by the writer of this summary and a grading made into four
categories of seriousness.
It was the intention of the survey to attempt to elucidate the causes of accidents
rather than their nature. This was to some extent stimulated by correspondence
with the Ministry of Health on the subject of the need, if any, for statutory
notification of home accidents.
Much of the value and importance of this study has resulted from the willing
and effective co-operation of the Health Visitors in the six areas of the survey, of
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