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Daily Guardians
The daily guardian scheme enables persons caring for children outwith the
scope of the Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act, 1948, voluntarily to
register as daily guardians with the Health Department and to receive from the
council a small weekly fee for each child minded. The children are required to
attend the neighbouring child welfare clinic. By these means, supervision of those
who would otherwise be subject to no control is possible and standards can be
kept at an optimum level.
At the end of the year 45 children were being cared for by 37 registered daily
guardians. These figures show that, compared with the preceding year, both the
number of children cared for and the number of registered daily guardians had
more than doubled.
Children in Care
There are two residential nurseries, providing places for 31 children situated
in the borough and under the control of the Children's Department.
By arrangement with the Children's Officer each child is medically examined
on admission, every three months, and on discharge, by the assistant medical
officers. Dental care and immunisation are also arranged by the health department.
In the ordinary way general practitioners provide general medical services.
Children placed with foster parents are given statutory, supervisory and general
medical care by general medical practitioners but in some cases the statutory
medical examination and the examinations for certification of freedom from infection
are carried out by assistant medical officers.
Problem Families
In order to co-ordinate the personal services of the various departments of the
council, there is a co-ordinating committee, consisting of a nominated officer from
each of the departments concerned — Town Clerk's, Health, Children's, Welfare,
Housing, and Education. The Health Department is represented by the Principal
Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Welfare. The committee met regularly
throughout the year and the "Problem Families "register which was established
in 1966 was maintained. Each family was the subject of a conference between the
case workers of the departments concerned. At the end of the year 12 families
were on the register compared with five last year.
It is not always possible to achieve results which are immediately apparent,
but as a result of these conferences, two families were re-housed, and domiciliary
family planning service was arranged in four cases. Unnecessary duplication of
visiting was eliminated.
Two further meetings were held in 1967 to enable the local field workers to
meet and discuss their work. One meeting in Enfield was attended by the
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