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The numbers of child.minders, both statutorily and voluntarily registered, as compared
with 1953, were as follows :—
At 31 st December
1953 1954
Number of child.minders statutorily registered 112 110
Number of children minded 638 590
Number of child.minders voluntarily registered 793 925
Number of children minded 854 1,000
The number of private day nurseries registered under the Nurseries and Child Private day
Minders (Regulation) Act, 1948, and the number of places provided, as compared with nurseries
1953, were :—
At 31st December
1953 1954
Private day nurseries statutorily registered 60 61
Places provided 1,795 1,795
Care of the unmarried mother and her child
The Council's duties for the care of expectant and nursing mothers and young General
children include the care of unmarried mothers and their babies. This duty is performed arrangernents
mainly through the agency of voluntary organisations, as recommended by the Ministry
of Health in circular 2866/43 and endorsed by the Council in its proposals under the
National Health Service Act, 1946. Some unmarried mothers are admitted to homes
under the management of the Welfare Committee. Unmarried expectant mothers in
voluntary homes, who are unable to pay for their own maintenance, are paid for through
the Welfare Committee.
Grants in aid for the maintenance and upkeep of voluntary mother and baby homes
are paid annually by the Council under section 22 of the National Health Service Act,
1946. In 1954, 21 homes were supported in this way, the total payments amounting to
£13,057.
The Medical Officer of Health is represented on committees of voluntary homes by
the appropriate divisional medical officer, who ensures that local services are readily
available to the unmarried mother and health visitors call regularly at mother and baby
homes in their districts. When the mother and baby leave the home notice of the new
address of each is sent to the Medical Officer of Health of the area concerned whether
the mother and baby remain together or not.
It was estimated that of 684 mothers admitted to mother and baby homes during Ante.natal
a period of six months, 39 per cent, had no effective ante.natal care, 28 per cent, had medicaI care
ante.natal care for less than three months before the expected date of confinement while
11 per cent, had no ante.natal care at all. Eighty.five per cent, of the total of 684 women
were primiparae and nearly two.thirds of the latter cases were between 18.24 years
of age. An attempt has been made to meet the needs of unmarried mothers for antenatal
care by holding evening clinic sessions in some divisions at which any mothers
who go to work and find it inconvenient to get to a clinic during the day may attend.
In January, 1954, the Council introduced a punch.card system for recording details Statistics
of each unmarried mother dealt with by the welfare workers of the associations.
These cards are designed to serve the dual purpose of providing the Council with
accurate statistics of the volume of work carried out by each association, and also assist
the voluntary organisations by reducing their clerical work and informing them of the
case load of individual welfare workers.
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