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maintaining an independent home and are employed at least 35 hours a week,
including meal times;
(b) parents when the mother is in ill-health and cannot care adequately for the
children, or during the mother's confinement ;
(c) parents who are living in housing conditions detrimental to health, or
where other environmental factors are such that it is desirable for the health of the
child that it should be admitted to a day nursery; and
(d) widowers or fathers when the mother has left the home.
2. The second priority for admission is given, subject to other rules, to children
whose mothers are compelled to go to work as an economic necessity because the
father is unemployed or his net income (i.e., his gross income less rent and an allowance
of £1 for each child after the first and, at discretion, any unavoidable expenses of an
exceptional kind) does not exceed £7 a week, provided that the mother is employed for
at least 35 hours a week, including meal times.
3. Vacancies not required for children in the first and second priority classes are
offered to other children in a third priority class whose parents are both working
provided that the mother is employed for at least 35 hours a week, including meal times
4. The divisional medical officer, with the approval of the Chairman of the
Divisional Health Committee, is authorised, at his discretion, to admit, in appropriate
cases, the children of mothers working fewer than 35 hours.
5. The divisional medical officer has overriding discretion to admit any other
cases presenting special features.
Charges for admission have risen considerably but have remained abatable according
to means; 27 per cent. of children in day nurseries attended without charge in 1958.
The number of children minded by voluntarily registered child minders has nearly
doubled in number (from 579 in 1949 to 974 in 1959). These child minders, who are not
required to register under the Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act, 1948, have
been paid a fee of 6s. per week for voluntary registration, and the acceptance of regular
supervision by health visitors. They are required to take precautions against accidents
and the spread of infection, to ensure that the child is kept clean and well fed and to take
children to the Council welfare centre once a fortnight if under one year of age or once
a month if older.
The number of private day nurseries and of child minders registered under the
Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act, 1948, has also doubled since 1949.
Marriage guidance—The Council has made financial grants for case work to the London
Marriage Guidance Council, the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council and the Family
Discussion Bureau, formerly a branch of the Family Welfare Association but since 1950
associated with the Department of Human Relations, Tavistock Clinic. Total grants paid
to the three organisations in 1958 amounted to £6,500. The London Marriage Guidance
Council holds some of its weekly counselling sessions in Council maternity and child
welfare centres. Monthly talks are given to groups of engaged or newly married couples.
The Catholic Marriage Advisory Council holds weekly sessions mainly at its own headquarters.
The Family Discussion Bureau works in premises in central London and case
workers are supported by case conferences with consultant psychiatrists from the
Tavistock Clinic*
Moral Welfare Associations—The social work of Moral Welfare Associations for the care
of the unmarried mother and her child is grant-aided by the Council. The amount of
annual grant paid has increased from £7,200 in 1949 to £12,531 in 1958, not only to
meet the increased salaries of social workers, but also because of increased demand for the
services of these organisations. A number of Conferences of Moral Welfare workers with
*A report of the research work into the value of these methods and into factors associated with marriage breakdown was
published in 1955. Social Casework in Marital Problems. Tavistock Publications Ltd.
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