DOMESTIC HELP IN ENGLAND

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28057, 27 August 1956, Page 2

DOMESTIC HELP IN ENGLAND

TRAINING CENTRES’ FUNCTIONS

The National Institute of Homemakers was begun in Britain with the object of raising the status of domestic workers, said Mrs L. J. Witts, who is employers’ representative on the national joint consultative committee for the South of England on the institute. With her husband, who is professor of clinical medicine at Oxford University, Mrs Witts has been visiting New Zealand. They are on their way ,to Sydney, where Professor Witts will spend five weeks at Sydney University as the 1956 Mcllwraith visiting professor. Mrs Witts said the institute wanted to make the girls proud of doing housework by giving them a training and much the same conditions, hours, and freedom as any other worker. Training centres for resident workers had been set up by the Government. After leaving school at the age of 15 years, the girls could attend the training centres for eight months intensive training before going into a household for a year. At the end of this practical experience, they could sit for the institute’s diploma. Their wages were raised from 25s a week to a minimum of £2 10s. A good employer would pay more and the girl lived in.

Standards of living, accommodation, leave and uniform (a beige dress with turquoise collar and cuffs) were specified. and hours of work were limited to 48 a week or 96 a fortnight. In the big English towns, a daily houseworkers’ service had also been established. The institute made itself responsible for the daily workers’ wage (2s an hour for a guaranteed week), insurance, and holiday pay, in return for fees, which amounted to 2s 8d an hour, from the employers. The daily workers, mostly married women, were also examined in household craft before being accepted by the institute.