[Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, Oldham County Borough.

  • Oldham (England). County Borough Council. nb2004302054.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / Medical Officer of Health, Oldham County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/142 (page 58)
    DOMESTIC HELP SERVICE (Section 29) The Domestic Help Organiser is responsible to the Medical Officer of Health for the general supervision of the service. In January, approval was given for the establishment to be increased by one junior clerk and a forewoman to supervise the day to day work of the domestic helps. This increase in the establishment has enabled the Organiser to devote more time to her duties in the field, and during the year she was able to visit almost all the new applicants for help and also to do a number of special re-visits. She is now better able to assess the problem and can select the most suitable domestic help and advise her on any special problems. During the year the Organiser made 595 visits compared with 339 in the previous year. The following figures show the number of domestic helps employed at the beginning and at the end of the year:— 1st Jan. 22 78 31st Dec. 18 53 Whole-time (30 hours or more per week) ... Part-time (under 30 hours per week) . At the beginning of the y’ear the full charge was 3s. 4d. per hour; this was increased to 3s. 8d. per hour, with effect from the 29th April, following a wage award of the North Western Whitley Council for manual workers. All cases are assessed according to income and the applicants advised of the proposed charge. Persons wishing to appeal against the assessment may do so and the appeals are submitted for review to a Special Section of the Home Nursing Sub-Committee. Domestic help is provided free of charge to blind and tuberculous persons. Persons entitled to national assistance and having the services of a domestic help, are assessed in the normal manner and an arrangement has been agreed with the Board whereby the amount assessed is recovered from the user. In spite of every effort to stabilise the service, the upward spiral in the number of new cases continued, with a consequent increasing cost. It was decided that wherever possible the hours per week per case should be reduced and in many cases help is now only provided fortnightly. In addition, new applicants for routine and continued assistance are very carefully selected, and if relatives are available help through the service is not granted. This strict scrutiny' has resulted in a slight reduction in the number of new cases accepted (442 compared with 465 in the previous year), and an increase in the cases cancelled, which totalled 472 compared with 348 in the previous year. The total cases assisted, 1,133, compare with 1,039 cases for the previous year. This increase is again mainly due to the assistance given to cases of old age and sickness.