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Occasional
creches
During the year it was possible to implement a scheme of restricted expansion of
occasional creches. A programme was prepared to establish 27 additional creches
providing 53 sessions a week making the total for the County 35 creches providing
77 sessions a week. As yet not all of the additional creches have been opened and at
31st December, 1955, the total number of creches was 18 providing 49 weekly sessions.
The creches are held in health service premises and provide for the occasional care for
two or three hours during the day of children under five years of age whilst their
mothers visit hospitals or clinics, or attend to shopping, laundering and other domestic
duties. The majority of the creches accommodate 20 children each and are open for
two three-hourly sessions a week. A sessional charge of 1s. 3d. a child is made but this
can be waived or reduced in necessitous cases and no charge is made when a child is
left in a creche while the mother is attending a class or clinic held by the Council in the
same premises.
Childminders
Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act, 1948
In addition to the statutory registered child-minders, the Council has a scheme of
voluntary registration whereby child-minders who are not required to register under
the Act, e.g., those who mind only one or two children, receive a small weekly payment,
in return for which they accept supervision by the Council and allow their homes to
be inspected.

Private day
nurseries

Care of the unmarried mother and her child
General
arrangements
The care of unmarried mothers and their babies is discharged mainly through 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. Young unmarried expectant mothers who are unable to pay for their own
maintenance are paid for by the Welfare Committee under the National Assistance
Act, 1948.
Voluntary
mother and
baby homes
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 1955, 20 homes were supported in this way, the total payments amounting
to £11,048. Each of these homes was visited by medical officers of the Council at least
twice during the year. The Medical Officer of Health is represented on the committees
of these voluntary homes in London by the appropriate divisional medical officer who
ensures that local health services are regularly available to the unmarried mother.
Health visitors call regularly at mother and baby homes and follow-up the baby on
discharge from the home. Mothers are encouraged to attend child welfare centres
while they are resident in the homes. During 1955 the expectant or nursing mothers
admitted to these 20 homes totalled 1,171, about 85 per cent, of whom were referred
by moral welfare workers. Confinements take place in local hospitals except in two of
the out-county homes grant aided by the Council. Management of the mother and
baby homes is left to the voluntary committees who are, however, encouraged to
provide educational facilities for young mothers resident there. Teachers are sent in by
the Education Department on the request of the local committee if there are more than
10 mothers who require them.
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