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91
Though the Daily Guardian Scheme is outside the sphere of the
Nurseries and Child Minders Act 1948. it is our opinion that the
Act should apply to all persons receiving children under the age
of five years for the purpose of daily minding. There is no doubt
that there is a proportion of daily minders who operate outside the
purview of the Act and the Daily Guardian Scheme, who because they
are aged or for other reasons are incapable of providing proper
care for young children.
The number of guardians on the register at the end of the
year was 119 of whom 63 were minding 71 children. The number of
individual children minded during the year was 131 and they were
in the guardians care for 15,246 days.
Day Nurseries
There are three day nurseries in the Area with a total of 168
places. The average attendance during the year was 111,4 per day
and the number of children on the register at the end of the year
totalled 143,
The number of applications for day nursery admission during
the year was 239 of which 42 were refused. All appeals against
the decisions made in accordance with the County Council s regula
tions are heard by the Day Nurseries Panel appointed by the Area
Health Committee for this purpose. Appeals against financial
assessment of the charges made for admission are also considered
by a similar panel.
The health and general care of day nursery children is very
good indeed.
Pour student nursery nurses entered for examination of the
Nursery Nurses Examination Board and were successful in obtaining
the Board' s Certificate.
Two of the day nurseries are recognised by the Ministry of
Health as training nurseries for the 0 5 age group and one for the
0-2 age group. The latter will be passed for the whole age range
as soon as a warden is appointed for the toddlers group. We
anticipate that we shall be able to send a member of the present
staff for the special course of training early next year which will
qualify her for the post.
All children admitted to the nurseries are received from
families where there are special difficulties, some of a temporary
and others of a more permanent nature. Generally speaking mothers