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GOOD NEIGHBOUR SERVICE
26.1 1967 and 1968 were years of continued expansion of the Good Neighbour Service.
Although started as a service for old people, the aim was that it should be expanded to
be a more genuine 'Family Service'. This proved easier in the south of the Borough than
in the north, where the service continued to be used mainly for old people, whereas in
the south it was possible to provide care for clients of all ages needing help, and to
build up a group of more experienced 'Good Neighbours' to be trained to help families
with multiple problems.

26.3 Most good neighbours are pensioners, taking on only one or two clients, although
there has been an encouraging increase in younger recruits. In view of the semivoluntary
nature of the work the maximum payment to a good neighbour, save in very
exceptional circumstances, is £2.10s. Od a week. Clients are referred from a number
of sources - from the Council's Welfare and Children's Departments as well as from
geriatric visitors and other field staff in the Health Department, and also from outside
organisations with close ties with the Council's services, such as the Camden Old
People's Welfare Association, Family Service Units, Task Force and general medical
practitioners.
26.4 It is sometimes thought appropriate to ask why a Good Neighbour Service should
be necessary in addition to a flourishing, if hard-pressed, Home Help Service. The
answer is that the good neighbour, although in many cases providing similar services
to those supplied by a home help, does so on a more informal basis and is not tied to a
tight time-schedule. The value of the Good Neighbour Service and its place in the social
service complex may perhaps be illustrated briefly in terms of case histories.
26.4.1 Case A
An old lady aged seventy-eight years suffers from arthritis, is deaf,
confused and becoming weak. She is 'difficult' in that she has refused
Part III accommodation in an old people's home, but she causes
distress to neighbours by wandering the streets at night, and the
Police have been involved. Meals on wheels have been supplied but
left uneaten.
A good neighbour is found who is able to call on the old lady three
times a day for seven days a week. She calls every morning to make
breakfast; she prepares a mid-day meal; then goes for a third time in
the evening to give the client a sedative prescribed by the doctor,
and to help her into bed. The good neighbour also does shopping and
collects the old lady's pension.
Other domiciliary services provided in this case are home help twice
a week and a home nurse also twice a week.
Without a good neighbour this old lady would be constantly in and out
of hospital, if not permanently in a home.
26.4.2 Case B
A mother, of limited intelligence, who has three young children, aged
five, four and two years, was ill-treated and deserted by the man with
whom she was living. She was sterilised following a further pregnancy,
having lost the baby. A good neighbour visits every morning to take
the children to school and nursery school, and to give general assistance
to the mother in organising her home, shopping, hospital appointments
and so on.
Without a good neighbour the children would probably be in care.
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