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7
The figures available from the Observation Register and the Handicapped
Children Register again show the importance of continuing to observe children
who may be at risk. Although a great deal of work is involved in these
registers, the fact that 5% of the children observed developed handicaps which
were recognized at an early stage and, therefore, dealt with at a stage when
serious effects may have been avoided, shows that the effort involved has been
worth it.
The year saw the issue of Dr. Yudkin's report concerning the facilities
available for the care of pre-school children outside their own homes. The
report drew attention to the lack of facilities available for the care of
these children where the mother was forced, for one reason or another, to
leave them in the care of someone else while she went out to work. It
focused attention on the poor standards, sometimes physically, but often
emotionally, with which these children were looked after. The Health Committee
considered the report and as a means of helping towards providing a social
background for these children, recommended that a service be set up to organise
playgroups in the Borough under the overall supervision of the Council. A
scheme was forwarded to the Ministry of Health, but by the end of the year
nothing further had been heard. The Council continues to provide day nursery
services and also the services of occasional creches at certain of the maternal
and child health centres. Some of the places at these centres have been
used at the request of paediatricians for the placement of children with minor
behaviour difficulties, and it has been found with these children that improvement
nearly always followed their admission to a creche. The day care of
children by child-minders continues to give rise to some concern. Where
child-minders are known, they are required to register with the Authority but,
undoubtedly, many children are child-minded without it being known to the
Department. It is possible that where this happens, standards of care may
not be of the order that they should be.
During the year the Department had to deal with a small number of children
who had contracted lead poisoning through sucking paintwork or eating
materials containing a high proportion of lead. Although the numbers were
small, because of the ultimate effect of lead on young children, the position
gave rise to some concern. One child, in fact, died through lead poisoning
due to eating putty. Action was taken to deal with the accommodation concerned,
and staff warned to keep a close watch for any likely instance of
further lead poisoning due to this cause.
The number of home confinements continued to show a steady decline. The
number in 1965 was 669, in 1966 - 551, and in 1967 - 481. Concurrently with
this, the number of midwives employed on domiciliary work has also shown a
very small decrease. The domiciliary service in the Borough is given from
two sources; the Council employs directly a number of midwives and a number
are employed at the Mothers' Hospital, who act in this capacity as agents for
the Council. It might well be that the time has now come when consideration
should be given to running one joint service, and it is intended to review
this in more detail in the year to come.
The year saw the passing of the National Health Service (Family Planning)
Act: an excellent piece of legislation giving much wider powers to local
authorities to help people who wished to plan their families. Whereas previously
local health authorities could deal only with people who needed to
undertake family planning on medical grounds, the new Act permitted local
authorities to provide advice and treatment for persons who because of their
medical or social needs wished to control the frequency with which they would
have children. In addition to married people, advice and treatment was to be
made available to the unmarried and included young people. This Authority