The medical officer of health, the social worker, and the problem family, 1943 to 1968: the case of family service units.

Abstract

It has sometimes been assumed that the Report of the Seebohm Committee on the Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services of 1968 and subsequent Local Authority (Social Services) Reorganization signalled a reduction in the influence of Medical Officers of Health in the care of poor and disorganized families and an increase in that of social workers. This article considers the role of Medical Officers of Health in the care of such families in the period after the Second World War, and their relationship with one of the key voluntary social work agencies in the field, Pacifist Service Units/Family Service Units. By examining the shift in responsibility from public health doctors to social workers and using the Bristol Family Service Unit as a case study, it argues that in many areas the Children and Young Persons Act of 1963 was used formally to transfer responsibility for such families to the Children's Departments and that the process was complete before the Seebohm Committee reported in 1968. It also suggests that those families in difficulty who remained the responsibility of the Public Health Department, and who were thought to have increased in number during the course of the 1960s, presented health visitors and public health doctors with a different range of problems, although they continued to be labelled problem families.