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43
MIDWIVES ACT, 1951
The Council is the supervising authority for all midwives practising in the
Borough under the Midwives Act, 1951.
During the year 235 midwives notified the Council of their intention to practise
in the Borough.
DAY NURSERIES
The Council operates ten day nurseries at which 587 places are provided.
There were 131,704 attendances during the year.
Occupation of St. Martins day nursery commenced on 1st May, 1967 and the
building was officially opened by His Worship The Mayor on 15th July, 1967.
This new nursery provides fifty places for the under 5 year olds and takes children
from the area formerly served by Streatham Hill day nursery which had to be closed
due to structural defects. In addition, a part-time group has been established at
the nursery to cater for the increased number of referals of cases of social need.
After a slow start this has proved to be valuable, not only in decreasing the
waiting list but in many cases was of greater benefit to the children than full time
attendance.
The nurseries provide a valuable service in preventing the break-up of families
and each takes a quota of 'handicapped children’ . The children may be either
socially or physically handicapped and in a group of normal children frequently
make rapid progress which enables them to advance more normally when they reach
school age. There is no doubt that some of these children could be catered for in
nursery school and classes if this type of provision was available.
The special unit at Tulse Hill Day Nursery has continued to provide for the
exceptional needs of nine children.
Of the ten day nurseries in the Borough, seven are ‘training nurseries’ and
provide for a total of 60 students. Recruitment of students has not been difficult,
applications exceeding the number of vacancies and during the year 30 students
successfully completed their training.
Recruitment of qualified nursery nurses, however, has been difficult. Each
nursery has on its staff nursery assistants, many of whom have long service and
make a valuable contribution to the work.