Midwives Act 1936
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1936 c. 40 |
Midwives Act, 1936
(26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8) CHAPTER 40.
An Act to amend the Midwives Acts, 1902 to 1926.
[31st July 1936]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Provision of domiciliary service of midwives.
(1) It shall be the duty of every local supervising authority within the meaning of the principal Act (in this Act referred to as an ‘authority’) to secure, whether by making arrangements with welfare councils or voluntary organisations for the employment by those councils or organisations of certified midwives as whole time servants or by itself employing such midwives, that the number of certified midwives so employed who are available in its area for attendance on women in their own homes as midwives, or as maternity nurses during childbirth and from time to time thereafter during a period not less than the lying-in period, is adequate for the needs of the area.
In this subsection the expression ‘lying-in period’ means the period defined as the lying-in period by any rule for the time being in force under section three of the principal Act.
(2) Within the period of six months from the commencement of this Act, or such longer period as the Minister may in any particular case allow, every authority shall submit to the Minister its proposals for carrying out its duties under this section, after consultation—
(a ) in the case of every authority—
(i) with all the voluntary organisations which, to the knowledge of the authority, employ or are willing to employ domiciliary midwives in the area of the authority; and
(ii) with such local organisation (if any) of registered medical practitioners as appears to the authority effectively to represent the opinions of such practitioners practising in that area on the questions to be considered in formulating the proposals; and
(iii) with such local organisation (if any) of midwives as appears to the authority effectively to represent the opinions of midwives practising in that area on the questions aforesaid; and
(b ) in the case of every authority being a county council, with every welfare council being the council of a county district within the county; and
(c ) in the case of the London County Council, with any association or committee which appears to that council to be representative of the metropolitan borough councils:
Provided that where a voluntary organisation has been established for the purpose of co-ordinating the services provided by other organisations referred to in sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph (a ) of this subsection the authority may consult the organisation so established instead of consulting those other organisations.
(3) The proposals submitted by an authority as aforesaid shall include particulars—
(a ) of the arrangements (if any) proposed to be made between the authority and welfare councils and voluntary organisations; and
(b ) of the number of midwives to be employed by, and the parts of the area of the authority to be served (whether exclusively or jointly) by, the authority, welfare councils and voluntary organisations respectively, or, if no such arrangements as aforesaid are proposed to be made, of the number of midwives to be employed by the authority.
(4) Every authority shall, not later than the date on which its proposals are submitted to the Minister as aforesaid, deliver a copy thereof to every council, organisation or other body which it has consulted in pursuance of subsection (2) of this section and to every such organisation as is referred to in sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph (a ) of that subsection, whether it has been so consulted or not.
(5) If an authority does not propose to make an arrangement with a welfare council or voluntary organisation which employs domiciliary midwives in the area of the authority, or if any such council or organisation is dissatisfied with the arrangements proposed to be made—
(a ) the council or organisation may, within two months after the proposals of the authority are submitted to the Minister, make representations to the Minister; and
(b ) the Minister, after considering any such representations and consulting the authority, may direct the authority to enter into such arrangements with such welfare councils or voluntary organisations as he thinks fit, or to vary any arrangements proposed to be made, and to alter its proposals accordingly.
(6) It shall be the duty of every authority to carry its proposals, as altered in accordance with any directions given by the Minister under the last foregoing subsection, into effect within the period of twelve months from the commencement of this Act, or such longer period as the Minister may in any particular case allow.
2 Appointment and terms of employment of midwives by authorities.
(1) At least one month before first engaging midwives for employment in pursuance of this Act, an authority shall—
(a ) give notice that applications for the employment are about to be considered, together with information as to the salary and other conditions of service, in one or more newspapers circulating in its area; and
(b ) send a copy of the said notice to every midwife who, on or after the first day of January next but one before the date when the said notice was given, has given notice of intention to practise in the area.
(2) A midwife employed by an authority in pursuance of this Act shall be required to devote the whole of her time to the service of the authority.
(3) Where a midwife employed by an authority in pursuance of this Act—
(a ) on ceasing to be so employed, is entitled to a pension under any enactment or any scheme made under or in pursuance of an enactment, or would be so entitled if she had then completed a sufficient period of service or made contributions to a superannuation fund for a sufficient period; and
(b ) was first so employed by that or some other authority before the expiration of three years from the commencement of this Act and, immediately before being first so employed, was not employed by an authority or any other local authority, whether as a midwife or in any other capacity;
any period or periods (not exceeding in the aggregate ten Years) during which she practised as a midwife before she was first so employed may, if and to the extent that the authority by which she ceases to be so employed thinks fit, be treated for the purpose of reckoning the amount of the pension, and also (if the case requires) for the purpose of ascertaining whether she is entitled to a pension, as a period of service during which she made contributions to the appropriate superannuation fund.
(4) The provisions of the last foregoing subsection shall have effect notwithstanding anything in the enactment or scheme by virtue of which the pension is payable.
(5) Where a pension or any part thereof is payable solely by reason of the exercise of the discretion conferred on an authority by this section, the pension or that part thereof, as the case may be, shall be paid, in the case of an authority being the council of a county, out of the county fund, and, in the case of any other authority, out of the general rate fund and shall, in the case of the London County Council, be paid as expenses for general county purposes.
(6) In this section the expression ‘pension’ includes a superannuation allowance.
3 Fees for attendance of midwives employed by authorities.
(1) It shall be the duty of every authority employing midwives in pursuance of this Act to fix a scale of fees payable for their attendance as midwives and a scale of fees payable for their attendance a maternity nurses, and to recover from any woman on whom such a midwife has attended as a midwife or maternity nurse, or from the husband or other person liable to maintain such a woman, the fees respectively fixed as aforesaid:
Provided that, if the authority is satisfied that the persons from whom the fees are recoverable cannot reasonably, having regard to their financial circumstances, be required to pay more than a part of the fees, or any part of the fees whatsoever, it may remit such part of the fees as those persons are in the opinion of the authority unable to pay, or the whole of the fees, as the case may be.
(2) Any fees recoverable under this section shall, without prejudice to any other remedy, be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.
4 Financial provisions.
(1) The following provisions of this section shall have effect with a view to fulfilling the intention of the Local Government Act, 1929 , as declared by section one hundred and thirty-five thereof, namely, that in the event of material additional expenditure being imposed on any class of local authorities by reason of the institution of a new service after the commencement of that Act, provision should be made for increased contributions out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(2) In respect of each year in the third fixed grant period, a grant, calculated in accordance with the First Schedule to this Act, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to every authority on which additional expenditure is imposed by subsection (1) of section one of this Act in respect of that year.
(3) For the fourth and every subsequent fixed grant period, the General Exchequer Contribution shall include such increased contribution by reason of the additional expenditure imposed on authorities by the said subsection (1) as Parliament may hereafter determine.
(4) For the purpose of this section, expenditure imposed as aforesaid on an...
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