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children. The selection of guardians is limited to those who are prepared
to keep to the rules of the scheme and are approved by the health visitor
for the district. The health visitor is also responsible for visiting the
child after placement.
The high standard expected of a guardian and the care health visitors
have taken in keeping to the standard, have no doubt largely contributed
to the success of this scheme.
The scheme has gradually increased year by year. There is no local
difficulty in obtaining applicants for this type of work; on the contrary,
more apply than are registered and we are in the happy position of
having more registered guardians than children who require daily
minding.
At the close of 1954 there were 144 daily guardians on the register,
of whom 82 were minding 89 children.
The number of individual children minded during the year was 189
and they were in the care of guardians for 19,527 days.
These figures compare with 174 and 17,559 respectively for 1953.
Day Nurseries
At the beginning of the year the number of day nurseries in the Area
was reduced from six to three by the closure of Red Gables, Stonecroft
and Lordship Lane nurseries. Stonecroft Day Nursery was subsequently
re-opened and Ladywell was closed. Arrangements were made for the
children attending the closed nurseries to be transferred to those remaining
open and in some cases transport was provided between the children's
home and their new nurseries. These arrangements have been continued
and at the end of the year 24 children were being transported.
During the year 12 students sat for the examination of the Nursery
Nurses Examination Board and all were successful in obtaining their
certificates.
Due to the closure of three day nurseries, three of the matrons left
the service. Two were offered and accepted posts as home nurses in
the Area and one obtained a post outside the Area. All other nursing
staff were absorbed into the remaining nurseries with the exception of
one who retired on a superannuation allowance, and the establishment
has been reduced to its new level by normal wastage.
Admissions to the nurseries are increasingly from families with
domestic difficulties and tend also to be from a moving population.
These factors and the uncertainty of retention in the nurseries have
made the work increasingly difficult and the constructive work which
should be a feature of the service is declining as help is given to parents
and children over a shorter period. The average daily attendance has
been 139.3 and the number on the register at the end of the year was
158. This shows that the attendances have been well maintained and
absenteeism from infection has been negligible. Park Lane Day Nursery
had a slight epidemic of chicken pox, otherwise there have only been
isolated cases of infection. The nurseries have remained open throughout
the year apart from public holidays.
The following table shows the attendances at individual nurseries
during the year.
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