[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough].

  • Kensington (London, England) Royal Borough.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    - 11 - Home Helps. The Council's scheme for the provision of home helps for mothers during confinement, which has been in operation since 1920, was extended during 1944 to enable home helps to be granted to mothers who, for reasons of ill-health at any time, are temporarily unable to look after their young children. Home helps were supplied in 58 cases at a cost of £174 10s. 0d. Domestic Helps. During the year attention was drawn to the position of sick or infirm persons (whether through old age or otherwise) who were unable to obtain domestic help, and the Ministry of Health requested the Council to organise a service to provide such help in the more serious cases of hardship. The necessary powers were conferred on the Council by Defence Regulation 68E. The principal functions of the Council are- (a) To appoint, and maintain a register of domestic helpers available for work at any time, and to arrange for their payment; (b) To determine who are the most, urgent of the applicants for help; and (c) To assess what part of the cost of the help provided should be recovered from each household and to secure its payment. The Council approved a suitable scheme on the 20th February, 1945, but great difficulty has been experienced in obtaining the necessary domestic helpers. The following is a summary of the action taken during the year;- Applications received 40 Applications refused on the grounds of unsuitability 11 Applications withdrawn 10 Applications granted 19 Of the 19 applications granted, 12 were supplied with domestic helpers, but in the remaining 7 cases no assistance could be given as the necessary domestic help was not available. With a view to overcoming the difficulties experienced, it was decided to appoint a whole-time Almoner who commenced duty in 1946.
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