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1968
1967
Approved places 312 302
Total of "weighted registers" 347 329
Total daily attendances 63,969 61,691
Average daily attendance 251 243
Number on waiting list at
end of year
Priority 1 and 2 43 31
Priority 3 14 13
Occasional Creches.
At child welfare centres0 the Council provide occasional creches where
children can be cared for while the mothers attend hospitals or clinics,
or do their shopping, etc.
At the end of 1968, a total of twenty-four weekly sessions was
provided0 and the total number of sessions during the year was 1,263,
compared with 1,009 in 1967. The total attendance was 15,877, compared
with 12,308 in 1967.
Private Day Nurseries and Child Minders.
The number of premises registered with the Council under the
Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act, 1948, and the overall number
of places available for day care of children in such premises have
continued the increasing trend noted during 1967. Premises newly
registered during the year havep however, been smaller than older
establishments and take individually fewer numbers of children (the
average number of places per establishment has fallen from 30.8 in I967
to 29.6 in 1968). The number of child minders registered under the Act
again fell, mainly because of removals from the borough; the number of
children minded fell in slightly greater proportion as newly-registered
minders were approved for smaller groups of children.
At this stage, neither of the foregoing have been affected by the
provisions of Section 60 of the Health Services and Public Health Act,
1968, which became effective on 1st November, 1968, and amended certain
provisions of the 1948 Act. The amendments are, briefly, such as to
require registration of premises open for daily aggregate periods of two
hours or more, and of child minders receiving one or more children. The
previous criteria were three hours (but this was a matter of practice
in Inner London and was hot legally prescribed) and more than two
children respectively„ A considerable increase of registrations in both
classes may be expected as a result next year.
The scheme for voluntary registration of persons caring for not
more than two children continued during the year. However, such persons
now have to be statutorily registered by reason of the amending 1968
Act, and action was taken to advise them accordingly. Some indicated
their intention of giving up child minding, evidenced by the fall in
the numbers shown in the table„ The scheme will cease early in 1969.
Supervision is undertaken by the Council's officers and the
standard of private care has generally remained consistently
satisfactory.