IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): LCC/PH/STA
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT: STAFF
Date(s): 1894-1950
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 3.7 linear metres
Name of creator(s): LCC | London County Council x London County Council
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The London County Council assumed responsibility for the general hospitals formerly maintained by the Boards of Guardians and the Special hospitals formerly maintained by the Metropolitan Asylums Board with effect from 1 April 1930. These hospitals needed much work to modernise, equip and staff them adequately. The Council made great improvements in hospital accommodation and staffing standards. The nursing service had been improved, medical schools established, and a laboratory service built up. These functions were transferred to the Regional Hospitals Boards and Hospital Management Committees under the National Health Service Acts with effect from 5 July 1948. The Council assisted by providing services of supply, engineering and finance for several months after the transfer, until Council officers could be absorbed into the new organisation.
There was also a transfer from the City and the boroughs to the London County Council of health services including maternity and child welfare, health visiting, home help, vaccination and immunisation, and the care of those with tuberculosis. The Council took over 4,843 lay and professional staff, 70 freehold premises, and 252 tenancy arrangements, as well as adding new services such as home nursing, the provision of health centres and the expansion of the ambulance service. The County was divided into nine divisions, each with a divisional health committee, a divisional medical officer, a nursing officer and an administrative officer.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the London County Council Public Health Department relating to staffing, 1894-1950, including general files relating to medical staff in hospitals and institutions, nursing staff, training of ex-tuberculous patients as nurses, shortage of nurses, recruitment and retention of nurses, training of nurses, report "Staffing London's Hospitals", midwifery training, almoners and psychiatric social workers. Papers relating to the Rushcliffe Committee on Nurses Salaries, and other negotiating Committees including the Inter-Departmental Committee on Nursing Services ("Athlone Committee"), Midwives Salaries Committee, Joint Committee on Salaries, and Wages of Hospital Staffs, Sub-Committee on Almoners and Psychiatric Social Workers, Sub-Committee on Laboratory Technicians, Sub-Committee on Pharmacists, Sub-Committee on Physiotherapists, occupational Therapists and Speech therapists, Sub-Committee on Radiographers, and the Committee on the Salaries of Whole-Time Public Health Medical Officers. Staff directories, reports and memoranda on nursing, and leaflets and brochures for nurse recruitment.
Sample of the 45,000 dossiers of staff employed by the Metropolitan Asylums Board before 1930 and not transferred to the Council; sample of the dossiers of LCC hospital staff. Registers of staff at mental Hospitals, including Banstead Asylum, Cane Hill Asylum, Claybury Asylum, Colney Hatch Asylum, Hanwell Asylum and Horton Asylum.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
LCC/PH/STA/01: General; LCC/PH/STA/02: Committees; LCC/PH/STA/03: Reports; LCC/PH/STA/04: Case papers; LCC/PH/STA/05: Registers; LCC/PH/STA/06: Minutes; LCC/PH/STA/07: Posters.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright: City of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
For Banstead and Horton Asylums, see reference H22; for Hanwell Asylum see reference H11/HLL and for Colney Hatch Asylum see reference H12/CH. For other asylums and institutes see the records of the Metropolitan Asylums Board (reference MAB) or consult the Hospital Records Database held on the National Archives website.
Publication note:
For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: April to June 2009