I believe Liverpool Personal Service Society was one of the first advice services in the UK, Do you know if this is correct.
I always enjoy the postings on your blog and the answers you some how provide,
Merry Christmas
John (Tuebrook)
Eleanor Rathbone Stamp
Hello John,
ReplyDeletePSS was the UK first Citizen`s Advice Service and this year (2009) marks the 90th anniversary of the Liverpool Personal Service Society, the charity that many believe planted the seeds of modern-day social work.
Established by social reformer Eleanor Rathbone in 1919, PSS has been at the forefront of some of the country’s most innovative developments in welfare and care, many of which have gone on to influence and shape national policy responses to social problems.
Eleanor, along with some of Liverpool’s leading figures could see the devastating effects the hardship was having on people’s welfare and health and so set about providing food, clothes and shelter to some of the city’s poorest denizens.
PSS services are delivered at neighbourhood level but using innovative models and practice that have been taken up around the world. Eleanor was also instrumental in the founding of what was later to become Age Concern. Other ground-breaking PSS projects include social housing, community legal services and marriage guidance. The charity is funded mainly through legacies and donations, and this money directly funds innovations to support future generations.
PSS has developed specialist knowledge and expertise in the provision of:
Services for people with dementia and their carers
Services for children, young people and their families including young carers, children whose parent use drugs, vulnerable young people in transition and women with post natal depression.
Services for offenders and their families.
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are a huge worldwide problem. In Britain alone some 750,000 people are affected - and this number is set to double in the next 25 years. Due to the huge impact of this issue, PSS has a special initiative and is dedicated to finding new ways to help carers to care and help support people with dementia to cope better with the effects of their illness.
Regards
Rob Ainsworth
Liverpool History Society