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45
The first suggestion which someone may put forward is to close the
Day Nursery and to leave the mothers to find other mothers to look after
their children and so enable them to go out to work. Suitable women
to look after children are difficult to obtain and, if obtainable, would not
be prepared to care for the children at less than 2s. per day which the
mothers cannot afford to pay. It may be suggested that the Council
might make a grant towards the payment but the consent of the Ministry
to such a proposal, I fear, would not be forthcoming.
The second suggestion which might be put forward is that a voluntary
society might take over the responsibility for caring for these children.
Any such suggestion I am sure would not meet with success. In Ealing
some years ago we had experience of a Day Nursery managed by a voluntary
society who found its maintenance so difficult that the Town
Council were asked to take it over, which they did. It was ultimately
closed.
The third suggestion is that which was put forward at the last
meeting of the Committee and that is to open the doors wider and to
admit children up to the number of 20 to 24 at my discretion, when these
children are in poor circumstances though their fathers are employed.
This would still further increase the total cost but the cost per attendance
would be less. If 20 children were regularly admitted, the average cost
per child per day would probably be about 3s. 3d.
The value of Day Nurseries from a Public Health point of view is
so doubtful that I am not myself prepared to make any recommendation.
I shall simply quote what the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of
Health has to say about Day Nurseries in his Annual Report for 1928,
and leave you to decide what should be done:—
"There has been a good deal of discussion of late in regard to
an extended use of Day Nurseries and Nursery Schools as a means
of safeguarding health among young children, and it is generally
agreed that the Day Nursery as at present organised fulfils a limited
and not wholly satisfactory function, while the Nursery School has
also its disadvantages and is not being employed or developed as its
protagonists would wish. I have dealt with the question of a
re-organised "Health Nursery" in previous reports and this matter
is receiving attention from the Ministry and from the Board of
Education. The Ministry have agreed somewhat to extend the
scope of the Day Nursery by the admission of children on account of
harmful environment or social circumstances, even though their
mothers may not be obliged actually to go out to work. Such a
concession will certainly enhance the value of Day Nurseries to
many busy mothers living in their neighbourhood."
THOMAS ORR,
26th November, 1929. Medical Officer.
On the consideration of this report it was decided that the
Day Nursery should be continued for a further period of three
months after which the question of its continuance should be
reconsidered and that in the meantime some relaxation of the
rules with regard to the class of case to be admitted should be
allowed.