CAB129-53 — Page 75

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locality and consequently Broadmoor had no difficulty in picking and obtaining a sufficient number of recruits to keep the staff up to its required complementa The snow payable to a student pale aure af Broadmoor at the commencement of training is £270 per annum, or about £5 45. per week, which, in spite of certain allowances, does not compare as favourably with the ages of other local employments as did the wage of 1938. The com- mong wage of £270 per annum is £40 per annum more than the wage paid to students in ordinary mental hospitals who in turn receive £30 per annum more than a student in a general hospital.

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10. Prior to the management of Broadmoor being transferred to the Board of Control the Institution had its own Departmental Whitley Council. In 1945 attendants were placed in appropriate nursing and other grades; pay and overtime rates of nursing staff became related to those for mental hospitals with effect from 1944, subject to the addition of a "lead" of £40. Subsequent to the transfer of the Institution to the management of the Board of Control in 1949, a Central Whitley Committee covering the three State Institutions was established together with local Whitley Committees for each institution. All these committees are in fact committees of the Ministry of Health Departmental Whitley Council though in practice they have a consider- able measure of independence. By two agreements of the Central Whitley Committee the scales of pay of the nursing staffs of the State Institutions have been revised to correspond with the revised scales for mental nurses in the National Health Service (subject to the continuation of the £40. "lead"). By the same agreements all the conditions of service appropriate to the nursing staffs of the National Health Service were applied to nursing staff newly recruited to the State Institutions, and the conditions of service relating to hours of duty and payment for overtime of the National Health Service were applied to the existing Broadmoor staff.

Maintenance Staff

11. Until 1948 a small maintenance staff was included in the staff of the Institution, major repairs and alterations being done by outside contractors. Since 1st April, 1948, the maintenance of the Institution has been the respon- sibility of the Ministry of Works which employs its own staff.

At the present time extensive repairs are being carried out and the maintenance staff employed in the Institution and on the estate now numbers 82. We mention later some of the ways in which this matter affects the security problem. In addition to the buildings within the security wall there are many other buildings on the estate including 171 houses for staff (53 of which have been built since the war).

Patients' Accommodation

12. Patients' accommodation at Broadmoor has been built in a series of blocks, which are largely self contained, each block having 3 wards. Patients are allotted to the different blocks according to their mental con- dition and behaviour. The degree of supervision and conversely the liberty and privileges allowed to the individual patients varies from block to block. Some wards, such as those in the block for refractory patients, consist of single rooms, some wards have dormitories as well, and in the wards for the best behaved patients a single room may be awarded as a privilege. Some patients may only leave their wards under close escort for exercise in an enclosed airing yard, others are taken into more spacious and more attractive airing yards in large groups, while the best behaved and most privileged patients known as parole patients can, during the daytime, go into the terrace gardens and canteen or may be allowed into certain other blocks to visit.