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attendance at school under five years of age is not compulsory. Accommodation
for these children can be provided either in nursery schools or in nursery classes.
During the war, four of the Council's nursery schools were used by certain Metropolitan
Borough Councils as war-time day nurseries. By December, 1945, one of
the Council's nursery schools had re-opened, and also one of the former 18 voluntary
nursery schools in London.
The number of children in London under five years of age increased rapidly
during the year, and with a view to discharging the Council's duties under the
Education Act, 1944, a survey was made of each school where more than 30 children
under five years of age were in attendance, in order to provide more nursery classes.
By the end of the year, 20 such classes had been provisionally approved.
All the children attending nursery schools are provided with three meals daily
(two light meals in the case of nursery classes), and in addition with mid-morning
milk, cod-liver oil and orange juice. Each child is seen every three months by the
school doctor, and a school nursing sister visits each school or class daily.
War-time nursery classes and play centres were provided primarily for children
whose mothers were at work.
At the end of 1945, there were 16 war-time nursery classes, and one play corner
providing for an average attendance of 460 children. All the children were supplied
on the premises with mid-morning milk, cod-liver oil, orange juice, and dinners,
and also in some cases with breakfast and tea.
All facilities for medical inspection and treatment, cleansing and infectious disease
control were provided on the fines usual in the Council's school health service.
There were also at the end of the year, 107 evening play centres attended each
evening by some 14,500 school children. Tea was provided at 74 of these centres
and in addition 5 play centres open before morning school, provided breakfasts for
45 children a day.
Statistics

In addition there were 3,770 mental defectives under statutory supervision in
their own homes and 343 under statutory guardianship.
The decline in the number of mental patients requiring institutional treatment,
which persisted throughout the war, has continued during 1945, and at the end
of the year there were nearly 4,500 fewer patients in London County mental hospitals
and institutions for the mentally defective than at the outbreak of war.
At the end of 1945, there were 446 patients on licence from the Council's certified