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The success which has attended the efforts of philanthropic bodies to meet the difficultiesof
the poor in this matter, may, the Committee 'think, be taken as showing the need for creche
accommodation; but more and better organised means are necessary to grapple successfully with
the problem. This is being realized by certain local authorities; and already one authority on the
outskirts of London (Acton) has endeavoured to obtain Parliamentary powers, to establish a
creche, whilst several of the more important corporations in the country are considering the
question.
The Committee call attention to the fact that the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical
Deterioration, in their report, made a recommendation to the effect that, whenever it was
thought desirable, owing to the employment of married women in factories, or for other reasons,
to establish municipal creches, girls over 14 might be made to attend occasionally, and that the
teaching of infant management to such girls should be eligible for aid from the grant for public
education. Public money could not be more usefully expended!
The Committee recommended, (a) That the standing order (No. 1G1), limiting the
period for considering applications to Parliament, be suspended, so far as may be necessary
to enable the Council to consider their recommendations with regard to the provision
and maintenance of creches in the County of London; (b) That notice be given,
by public advertisement, of the intention of the Council to consider, at its meeting to be held
on August 1st, 1905, a proposal that it shall take the necessary measures for promoting, in
the next session of Parliament, legislation to enable the metropolitan borough councils: (i) to
provide and maintain crhhes; and (ii.) to contribute towards the maintenance of criches established
by voluntary effort in the county of London, and to defray, out of the county fund, the
costs and expenses of so doing. But at the meeting of the County Council held on 25th July, the
report was withdrawn by the Committee, and will not therefore form the subject of an application
to Parliament during the current Session.
In connection with the suggested provision of creches, the Education Committee gave consideration
to the desirability of not permitting children under five years of age to attend school,
and it is expected that they will soon be in a position to report on the subject.
CHILD MORTALITY AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
The Board of Education decided, last year, to relieve local education authorities from the
obligation to provide school places for children under the age of five years, the age at which
compulsory attendance begins, and it is staled that the number of such authorities who have
decided that in future children under five shall not be admitted to elementary schools, is already
considerable: some few authorities have elected to exclude children under four only.
In connection with the question of the provision of creches, referred to in the preceding section,
the London Education Committee are still considering the desirability of availing themselves of this
power of exclusion. The subject received considerable attention in the House of Commons, in
the debate on the Education vote, on the first of August, the date at which the decision of the
Board of Education became operative. Sir William Anson, then Vice-President of the Board,
stated that:—
"There are a great many reasons why children under the age of five should be
excluded from schools; their work is of small educational value, their attendance is
accompanied very often by considerable risk to health; in tolerably well-to-do families
they are are almost always better at home, and in very poor families they ought to be
provided for by crtcke and public nursery, but not by public elementary school."
He further stated that " very interesting reports of women inspectors who were specially
asked to report upon the condition of infant schools, and to inform the Board what educational
value attached to them, had been obtained." The reports, which are " very strong and decided,"
have since been published.
The decision of the Board should be heartily welcomed by sanitary authorities, and it is
to be hoped that in the result there will be a material reduction in child mortality — especially
from such diseases as measles and whooping-cough, which are spread to no inconsiderable