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A Home Advice Group was formed in North Kensington to institute a series of
elementary classes in housewifery for mothers of children attending a local school.
Facilities were given at a welfare centre for meetings to be held on one evening each
week and the group is now open to other mothers living in the district.
Home advice
group
St. Charles Day Nursery, Kensington, was closed early in the year and the children
were accommodated in other nurseries. As a result of this loss of accommodation there
was a considerable waiting list for admission to Kensington nurseries until the opening
of the annexe at Kensal House day nursery. This provided additional accommodation
for six babies and ten children between the age of one and two years. Adaptations to
provide additional accommodation at Grove House day nursery, Fulham, were completed.
During the year there was a decrease in the demand for admission to day
nurseries and there were generally some places for children between the ages of two and
five which could not be filled. The number of children in the third priority group
whose parents' income exceeded £9 a week rose slightly to about 27 per cent. Improvements
were carried out at a number of the day nurseries and electric washing machines
and drying cabinets were installed at several of them.
There was a slight reduction in the numbers in the care of daily minders and of
children attending private day nurseries.
Day nurseries
and childminders
Occasional
crèches
Two creches were opened, one in Kensington and the other in Hammersmith,
where children under five years of age could be left for periods of two or three hours
in order to give their mothers free time for shopping, laundering, visits to dentists or
hospitals or other duties. Each creche is open twice weekly and can accommodate up
to ten children. At the outset attendances were disappointingly low, but they have
improved somewhat and may continue to do so as the facilities become more widely
known.
Arrangements were made for occasional special sessions to be held at Hammersmith
school treatment centre for the treatment of children suffering from plantar warts with
carbon dioxide snow.
School
health
In order to deal with the large number of children awaiting re-examination by eye
specialists, arrangements were made for 124 additional sessions to supplement the regular
vision sessions. By the end of the year this had removed the time lag in re-examinations,
and it is hoped that it will be possible to arrange additional sessions in the new year to
meet the increasing demand.
Tuberculosis
B.C.G.
vaccination
The scheme introduced in 1954 for inoculating with B.C.G. children in secondary
schools in the division in the year preceding their 14th birthday was repeated. The
arrangements again worked smoothly, but there was a slight falling off in the number
of consents given for inoculation. Consents were received for about 69 per cent. of the
children; of these approximately 86 per cent. gave a negative reaction to the Mantoux
test and were given B.C.G. vaccine.
The children vaccinated in 1954 were followed up and consents were given for testing
about 70 per cent. of them. Of those retested 11 per cent. were found to give a negative
reaction to the test and these were re-vaccinated. Children who were found to give a
positive reaction to the first test were followed up by X-ray examinations at the chest
clinics.
Home help
service
The demands for the service of home helps continue to increase. There was considerable
difficulty in recruiting sufficient helps, particularly in Chelsea and to a less
extent in Hammersmith, but help was provided to the fullest extent possible wherever
it was essential. Home helps in North Kensington formed a club, and facilities were
provided for them to hold evening meetings about once a month during the winter.
Morning and evening home help was provided in many instances for homes from
which the mother was temporarily absent. The children were given breakfast, dressed
and taken to school or to the day nursery in the mornings, the father having already gone
to work, and in the evening the help fetched the children from school or day nursery,
prepared tea and looked after them generally until the father's return.
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