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Statutorily registered child-minders
There are ten registered child-minders who care for a maximum of 74 children. Visits of
inspection are paid quarterly by health visitors who submit reports to the Chief Nursing Officer
(Health Visitors).
Voluntarily registered child-minders
The Council has continued a scheme for the voluntary registration of child-minders seeking
to mind not more than two children.
The child-minder receives a registration fee of 6s. per week while she has children in her
care and for a period of not more than three weeks while on the waiting list. The child-minder is
expected to take children in her care to the child welfare centre regularly - at least once a fortnight
if the child is under one year, and once a month if the child is over one year of age. She is
also expected to give the health visitor access to the children at all reasonable times. On 31
December 1965. there were 105 voluntary child-minders, minding a total of 165 children.
Play groups
Play groups held for three hours (or less) daily, are not liable to compulsory registration
under the Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act, 1948. When invited, health visitors keep
these play groups under observation. They offer advice about staffing, equipment, premises and
general care.
Occasional creches
Occasional creches were provided at six of the Council's child welfare centres. Children
under five years of age can be minded on an ad hoc basis, while their mothers attend hospital outpatient
clinics, group activities in our centres, or to free them for domestic reasons. Places are
also given to children who are suffering from adverse social conditions in their own homes and who
need more scope for play as well as opportunities to socialise with other children. Such children
may attend regularly for several sessions each week. 23 weekly sessions were held catering for a
maximum attendance of 20 children at each session. The average attendance was 16 children.
ADOPTIONS AND FOSTER CARE
All medical reports on children about to be placed for adoption or foster care are, at the
request of the Children's Officer, reviewed by a Principal Medical Officer of the Health Department.
Such reports include a serological test of blood and urine test for phenylketonuria at six weeks or
over. The Children's Officer is advised of the implications of adverse factors in the medical history,
or in the child's condition which ought, in the interests of his future development, to be revealed
to prospective adopters or foster parents, and of conditions which might preclude the child from
being placed for adoption.
During the period 1 April to 31 December 1965 the medical reports of twenty-seven children
about to be placed for adoption were reviewed. In nine cases additional medical reports had to be
obtained before a decision could be given. In four cases in which it was known that the mother had
suffered from mental illness the advice of the consultant psychiatrist was sought. In four cases
the Children's Officer was advised that the prospective adopters should be informed of the child's
condition, and the risks which their medical history or handicaps might imply. In two of these cases
reports were sent to the family doctor of the prospective adopters so that he might advise them
whether to proceed with their applications. In all 27 cases there proved ultimately to be no medical
condition which would make adoption undesirable.
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