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106
The absence of a Day Nursery under the direct control of the
Department is proving a most serious difficulty. Most Health
Visitors are in contact with familes who should rank high in
priority for admission and a Day Nursery would also assist the
Children's Department in keeping children out of care.
Occasional Creche Service
At two of the Council's Welfare Centres occasional creches are
provided for the minding of children under 5 years of age while
their mothers visit hospital, attend to shopping and other domestic
duties or take part in activities at the centre at which the creches
are held.
A nominal charge per session is made and this is abateable in
necessitous cases.
Adoption, Foster Parents and Boarding Out
Adoption—One of the most serious social problems of the
country today (although happily of no great moment in this
Borough at present) is the difficulty experienced in the assimilation
into society of coloured immigrants in order that hostility and
discrimination may be avoided.
A corollary to this situation, which is becoming progressively
more important, is that of the settlement of children of differing
racial origins who, for various reasons, are deprived of a family
life.
Responsibility, generally, for the placement of these children
rests with Adoption Societies and with Children's Departments and.
for most adopters, there is an obligation, under Section 3 of the
Adoption Act, 1958, to notify the local authority of their intention
to adopt.
Health visitors are often in close contact with such children
and in some instances their tecords are of considerable value to
the Medical Officer when his observations are sought by the various
agencies concerned with adoption.
Foster Parents—In accordance with the Boarding Cut of
Children Regulations, 1955, the department's observations are also
sought with regard to foster homes listed by the Children's Department
into which children have been placed privately by their
parents.
Boarding Out—On the recommendation of the Chest Physician,
arrangements can be made for the boarding-out of children exposed
to infection in their own homes or whose parent or parents are
receiving residential treatment for tuberculosis and cannot arrange