Supporting children living with a disability
Rotary Sydney has had a long history in initiating and supporting children living with a disability.
It started way back in 1928 when the Club adopted as its major project called “The Education and Vocational Training of Crippled Children”.
Then in December 1929, the NSW Society for Crippled Children was established.
This Society paved the way for Northcott, a large provider of services supporting people living with disability in Australia which continues today.
The issue
In Australia, there was little recognition of children living with a disability.
The 1923 The Child Welfare Act did not provide for their medical, psychological and social needs. Their attendance at school was not compulsory, and they were either hidden from sight or overprotected by their parents and guardians, subjecting them to a life of dependency.
Access to surgical and medical treatment followed by education and training in productive work would provide a path for children with physical disability to realise their potential and obtain a measure of economic independence in adulthood.
Project aim
To survey the Sydney Metropolitan Area to ascertain the number of children with physical disability and to arrange for clinics in order to lay the foundations for a NSW Branch of the International Society for Crippled Children which would permanently care for the surgical aid of children with physical disability and their education and vocational training.
Approval was secured from the State Department of Education and the Council of the NSW Branch of the British Medical Association for the Club to undertake the work.
Children supported by the project fell within the classification provided by the New York State Commission… “a child whose activity is or may become, as a result of progressive disease, restricted by loss, defect or deformity of bones or muscles to such a degree as to reduce his normal capacity for education and self-support”.
Key activities
The Club’s Community Service Committee took carriage of the project. The key activities of the project, to be conducted over 1 year, included:
- Survey - undertaken in the Sydney metropolitan area to locate the physically disabled children and identify their medical, surgical and educational needs.
- Expert diagnosis in clinics – undertaken at Sydney Hospital to determine the prognosis of the child based on care, cure and education. Children were classified as “urgent and hopeful”, “hopeful but not urgent”, “doubtful but hopeful of some relief”, “hopelessly incurable” or “slight deformities that may be cared for locally. Hospital stay or operation not necessary”.
- Transfer of activities to the “Crippled Children’s Society” – transfer of records and seed funds of over £17,000 raised through the Citizen’s appeal.
Preliminary investigation and supporting infrastructure
- Consultation with groups and individuals in medical, health, education and welfare fields and review of overseas literature (experience of activities in US, Canada and Great Britain) provided an understanding of the status of care and education available to children with physical disability and informed the survey design. Dr Gordon Craig and Dr Robert Wade were members of the Club and were able to introduce the Committee to the relevant organisations. The leading hospitals with orthopaedic equipment and convalescent homes were inspected by their honorary surgeon.
Consultations revealed adequate availability of surgical and orthopaedic skills, and support provided in hospitals and convalescent establishments for the cases presented. In contrast, educational provisions were lacking.
- Project governance – included a central committee responsible to Board of Directors with 6 sub-committees (publicity, education, records, survey, clinics, finance) which consulted closely at all stages of the project with the advisory committee comprising doctors, surgeons, education experts and hospital representatives.
- Reference Committee appointed by the British Medical Association – protected the legitimate interests of the profession and provided advice important for success of the project.
- Rotary Club of Sydney covered the costs of an office and the conduct of the survey. A secretary was appointed, and an office located in the Australia Hotel.
Conduct of the survey and clinics
A dedicated committee conducted the survey. A publicity campaign was launched across Sydney. As children were nominated, names and addresses were recorded and a list prepared.
Members of the club volunteered to visit homes, verify addresses, and record socio-medical details for each child, provided by parents and guardians. For the first clinic, 70 volunteered. Twenty were required. Four cases were allotted to each member.
6 clinics were conducted at Sydney Hospital. The hospital offered the clinics (staff and resources), at no cost to the Club. 473 children were examined free of charge by orthopaedic surgeons nominated by the British Medical Association.
Rotarians provided cars to bring children from across the metropolitan area. They helped fill in forms and check names. Many children had to be carried from the cars to the clinic.
The first 3 clinics conducted by November 1929 examined 230 children. In the first clinic, 62% of cases were pronounced hopeful, at the second 82%, and third 88%. The positive outcomes from the clinical examinations indicated that adequate and appropriate medical care resulted in immediate relief and opened the way for many physically disabled children to gain their independence.
Citizens’ Appeal
The Appeal was conducted to secure the support of the Sydney community and raise seed funding of £15,000 for the transfer of activities from the Rotary Club of Sydney to the Crippled Children’s Society. A meeting was convened by the Chief Civic Commissioner at the Town Hall on Oct 24,1929. An interim committee, drawn up from the meeting, was established.
A campaign conducted through direct mail, collection boxes and newspapers raised £17,058.17.8.
NSW Society for Crippled Children
At a meeting in the Town Hall on Dec 17, 1929, the Club formally handed over to the Crippled Children Society the records, the funds raised by the Citizens’ Appeal, together with the remaining £211.8.2., of funds raised within the Club in connection with the preliminary work, and existing office equipment to the Society’s office in 32 Castlereagh St.
The Society was admitted to honorary affiliation with the International Society for Crippled Children without obligation or fee.
On August 6, 1930 the NSW Society for Crippled Children was registered.
Members of the Rotary Club of Sydney were on the first Board. Sir Henry Braddon was President and remained President until 1946. Alec Campbell, Fred Birks, Ben Gelling, Rupert Beale and S.S. Cohen were Directors. F. H. Stewart and George H. Bosch were Life Governors. Ben Gelling served the Board as Secretary.
The Club’s support of the Society continued
1930 – The Department of Education built a school in the grounds of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children. Rotarian Fred Birks, contributed to the cost of hot lunches for the children. In 1942, the school was named the “Fred Birks Activity School”. In 1962, the school was rebuilt by the Department of Education, describing it as “a little gem of a building, reflecting the happiness that exists inside and spills out on to the lawns each day”.
1935 – businessman Andrew Reid offered to erect a home costing £10,000 at his own expense and to present it to the Society as a memorial to his wife Margaret. Rotarian Leith McCredie was honorary architect. The Governor, Lord Wakehurst on 10 July 1937, officially opened the Margaret Reid Home at St Ives. Later it was accepted as a public hospital and named the “Margaret Reid Orthopaedic Hospital”.
1937 - urgent appeal to community for additional funds of £40,000. Rotary Club of Sydney organised the appeal and made it a major project for 1937-38 (President Garnett Halloran). The Club raised £32,000 in cash, including a donation of £10,000 from Rotarian Andrew Reid. Response to the appeal included a property surrounded by 30 acres at Beverley Park, Campbelltown, site of the Beverley Park school rebuilt in 1974.
1946 – Rotary Club of Sydney President Sir Kenneth Coles became President of the Society and held office until 1969-70. He remained a Director and was later made President Emeritus and a life member of the Board.
1946 – 47 the club raised £6,119. In 1947-48, a ball organised by metropolitan clubs raised £1,300.
The Club helped with the “Forget Me Not” appeal and continued to support the Society financially.
1979 was the United Nations Year of the Child and the jubilee for the Society for Crippled Children. Club President Gordon Allen on Feb 19, 1980 handed a cheque for $3,000 to the President of the Society – later supplemented by a further $5,000.
Transport to schools and public hospitals – Rotarian FH Stewart, proprietor of a fleet of buses, provided free transport to children from home to school and back. Rotarians also helped the Society to organise a general “care transport” system to help parents convey children to and from public hospitals.
Development and growth of the Society
Schools
The Department of Education took on the responsibility of educating children with physical disability. A Bill was passed in NSW Parliament to make school attendance compulsory. The smaller schools often located in church halls gave way to permanent well-established, well-equipped and well-staffed schools catering for larger numbers of students.
In 1958-59 the Department of Education began subsidising the transport of the children.
By 1974 the NSW Society of Crippled Children had 7 well established schools across metropolitan Sydney, serving on average a total of 454 children each day. The largest was Northcott in Parramatta, with a capacity for 105-110 children.
The Dept of Health had accepted a proportion of the costs incurred in providing physiotherapy and occupational therapy services to the schools.
Sheltered employment services
These existed to build confidence and self-respect by providing remunerative work, with the ultimate goal “graduation” to open employment. The Society operated workshops in Chalmers St, Sydney; Northcott Industries in Parramatta (in association with the Parramatta School) and Nowra.
Northcott Society ‘Northcott‘
In 1992 the name changed to the NSW Society for Children and Young Adults with Physical Disabilities, and in 1995 to The Northcott Society ‘Northcott’.
As of 1997, in line with changes happening more broadly, there was a shift away from an institutional model of service provision. The Society moved away from its traditional areas of operation to provide wide ranging services supporting people with physical disabilities in their communities.
Northcott today www.northcott.com.au
Northcott helps more than 16,000 people living with disability, their families and carers each year.
Services provided from metropolitan and regional locations in NSW, QLD and the ACT include: Allied Health and Clinical services, Group supports (Life skills, recreation, short stay and respite, work and study, and work skills); Individual supports (Individual support, support coordination, social work); Housing and Independent Living; and Early Childhood.