[Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Lancashire County Council.

  • Lancashire (England). County Council.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Lancashire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    122/222 (page 120)
    WELFARE SERVICES WELFARE OF THE AGED AND INFIRM AND THE HOMELESS Residential and Temporary Accommodation.—Section 21 (1) of the National Assistance Act, 1948, provides that it shall be the duty of every local authority, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of Part III of the Act, to provide— (a) residential accommodation for persons who by reason of age, infirmity or any other circumstances are in need of care and attention which is not otherwise available to them ; (b) temporary accommodation for persons who are in urgent need thereof, being need arising in circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen, or in such other circumstances as the authority may in any particular case determine. Section 21 (2) provides that in the exercise of their said duty a local authority shall have regard to the welfare of all persons for whom accommodation is provided, and in particular to the need for providing accommodation of different descriptions suited to the different descriptions of such persons as are mentioned in sub-section (1). These functions of the County Council are carried out in accordance with a scheme made by the County Council and approved by the Minister of Health. Residential Accommodation Provided.—Full residential accommodation for persons in need of care and for certain homeless families is provided under section 21 (1) in premises managed by the County Council, by other local authorities and by voluntary organisations. The following is a statement of the number of persons for whom the County Council were responsible and who were provided with this type of accommodation during 1960 :— Males Females Children Homes managed by County Council ... 1,093 1,542 ... - Homes managed by other local authorities 23 58 — Former public assistance institutions managed by the County Council 492 681 148 Former public assistance institutions, etc., managed by other local authori¬ ties 143 172 6 Establishments managed by voluntary organisations— Homes for the Blind 49 79 Other than Homes for the Blind ... 195 334 — Totals . 1,995 2,866 154 Of this total of 5,015 County residents, 1,525 (573 males, 821 females and 131 children) were discharged during the year and 142 males and 174 females died, leaving 3,174 (1,280 males, 1,871 females and 23 children) still in residence at the 31st December, 1960. The comparable numbers of persons in residence at the 31st December of each of the 10 preceding years were as follows :— Year Males Females Children Total 1950 973 938 130 2,041 1951 1,038 1,059 67 2,164 1952 1,069 1,148 102 2,319 1953 1,105 1,237 56 2,398 1954 1,146 1,299 40 2,485 1955 1,114 1,367 66 2,547 1956 1,168 1,506 46 2,720 1957 1,194 1,548 51 2,793 1958 1,238 1,630 44 2,912 1959 1,239 1,713 31 2,983 The County Council also provided accommodation in premises managed by them for certain residents who were the responsibility of other local authorities with whom, for the most part, “ user ” agreements existed prior to the 5th July, 1948. There were 75 (30 males and 45 females) such cases still in residence at the 31st December, 1960, as compared with 90 at the end of the previous year. A more detailed statement of the numbers of persons provided with residential accommodation in the various establishments during the year 1960 is set out in Tables 21 to 27 on pages 200 to 210. It might be noted that, whilst an accommodation capacity for each sex is given in the tables for those properties managed by the County Council, some of the accommodation is in fact adaptable for occupation by either sex according to demand.