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child to the nursery. If the mother is seriously ill, day nursery
provision is not adequate, and in any ease someone would have to
be available to bring the child to and from the nursery.
A scheme of domestic helps would be more serviceable for both
these groups of mothers. If places were to be kept for children
who were only intended to be in the nursery for three months or
less I would suggest that they should be in the over two years age
group, at which age the child settles more readily without emotional
disturbance, derives benefit from contact with other children, and
an infection is a less serious matter.
In the new training scheme for nursery nurses a suggestion is
made that experience in handling babies under six months should
be gained in the homes.
DOMESTIC HELP SCHEME.
Ministry of Health Circular 179/44 (Dec., 1944) expressed the
concern of the Government regarding the need for supplying
domestic help to persons sick and infirm (whether through old age
or otherwise), and extended the power of local authorities to provide
such help in necessitous cases other than mothers and young
children, in whose case the Welfare Authority already had power to
supply domestic help. In the event of an authority being satisfied
that there was a need for such an extended service of domestic
helps in their area, the Circular recommended that application be
made to the Ministry of Labour and National Service, and that the
authority should themselves employ the helpers at rates of pay not
less than those of the Hetherington scale.
In January, 1945 the Council adopted the scheme, and applica
tion was made to the Ministry of Labour Employment Exchange for
women to undertake the work.
As no women had been referred by the Ministry of Labour
and National Service by the month of July, application was made
to the Ministry of Health to find out whether the Ministry would
sanction the Council accepting, for the extended service, the services
of domestic helps provided by applicants themselves as is done in
the case of home helps supplied by the Welfare Authority ; but the
necessary sanction had not been obtained by the end of the year.