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33
Co-ordination of Social Services
The Social Services Co-ordination Committee met regularly during 1970. The
membership consists of the chief officers of the Health, Children's, Welfare and
the Housing Departments, the Deputy Town Clerk and representatives of the Inner
London Education Authority, the Housing Department of the Greater London Council,
the Department of Health and Social Security, the Probation Service and certain
local voluntary organisations.
The Field worker's Conference which is a sub Committee meets fortnightly.
At this Conference cases are discussed which have been referred by any social
work department or agency in the Borough. At the field level the object is to
pool information regarding the family under discussion and arrive at an agreed
decision on the rational use of the available social work resources. Occasionally
the Conference was unable to arrive at satisfactory conclusions and referred
the cases to the full Co-ordinating Committee for action.
During 1970 the Co-ordinating Committee continued to arrange meetings for
social workers inthe Borough with the aim of explaining the policy and practice
of different Departments and thereby improving the understanding and relationship
between the social work services.
The Kingsmead Centre completed its first year of existence at 5 and 6
Templemead House. Statistics gathered at the end of the year clearly showed
the extent of the services performed to the tenants on the Estate and the facilities
it provided for different social workers in meeting their clients who were
living on the Estate. Over the months the tenants made more and more calls on
the Centre asking for various kinds of help and information. Just as an example,
there were 48 calls made to the Centre in December 1969 whereas there were 90
calls made in December 1970. Various services make use of the Centre including
the Education Welfare Service, the Children's Department, the Welfare Department
and the Probation Service. The Tenants' Association hold their meetings at the
Centre and social workers from this Department in co-operation with social workers
from other Departments have been able to establish two clubs which operate also
at the Centre. One of these clubs is meant for mothers living on the Estate
and the other for teenage girls. These clubs have proved very satisfactory and
helped in promoting a greater feeling of community among those participating
and living on the Kingsmead Estate.
1970 has been to some extent an unsettling year for the social workers
because of the impending changes, and on the whole the social workers have
played their full part in anticipating the changes and entering discussions and
contributing in various ways to the thinking going on amongst social workers in
other Departments.
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
During 1970 some improvement took place in the mental health service. The
increase in staff made it possible to re-deploy the social workers in teams
each covering an area thus improving the community care and the case-work.
Whereas in 1969 none of the social workers had the appropriate academic background,
five fully qualified staff entered the section, one who returned from
training sponsored by the Council and four newly appointed as Deputy Principal,
and Assistant Principal, Mental Health Social Workers. Plans for an extension
to 120 beds of the psychiatric part of Hackney Hospital including a Day Hospital
for 100 patients were approved and the implementation of these plans began.
Plans for new Council establishments were approved by the Council and by the
Department of Health and Social Security.