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eligible for the domiciliary scheme should be extended to include women
who find it difficult to come to a clinic because of the tie of young
children. By the end of the year 86 new families were visited.
A letter was received during July from the Secretary of State for
Social Services stating that the Government was aware of the considerable
improvements that family planning could have on the quality of domestic
life and that it proposed to encourage the growth of local authority
family planning services, particularly in areas of special need such as
the domiciliary service, and that provision would be made in the rate
support grant for expenditure to treble by 1972/3.
The Family Planning Association introduced their "National Family
Planning Agency Scheme" on 1st April 1971 with the main object of
rationalising present arrangements and making a standard scheme
applicable to the whole country. This had the effect of considerably
increasing the sum payable by the Council for family planning services
supplied by the Association in Council clinics, and it was decided that
negotiations should be entered into with a view to the Council ultimately
directly running all the family planning services in the Borough.
Negotiations went on during the latter part of the year and at
the same time other adjacent London Boroughs were approached to see if
some form of reciprocal arrangements could be entered into as, in the
past, patients from other Boroughs had been seen at Family Planning
Association clinics in Hackney although charges were made on the Borough
of residence.
The Council agreed on the 22nd December, 1971 to the provision of
a free family planning service to Hackney residents attending Hackney
Family Planning clinics with effect from 1st April, 1972, the date fixed
for the taking over of the Family Planning Association clinics.
In the past, social cases were referred to the Family Planning
Association clinics, whilst the Health Department clinics dealt with
patients requiring family planning service on medical grounds. In future
this differentiation will cease and all types of patients can attend
the clinic of their choice.
Discussions continued during the year about the possibility of
family planning sessions being started at the Hackney and Mothers'
Hospitals. The Hackney Group Hospital Management Committee approved
clinical assistantships to cover this work, and arrangements went ahead
for the sessions to commence in 1972. Close liaison will be necessary
to ensure that paitents are referred to local authority clinics on discharge
from the hospital clinics. During the year additional statistics
were requested by the Department of Health and Social Services on the
type of cases attending the family planning clinics, and the different
methods adopted. Tnese are set out below:-
Sex and marital distribution
Males 2
Married females 1028
Unmarried females 67
1097