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Day Care of Children under Five.
In October, 1968, the then Minister of Health issued a circular (37/68) saying
that he had been reviewing the provision by local health authorities of day care facilities
for children under five in the light both of the operation of the Nurseries and ChildMinders
Regulation Act and of other enquiries and reports on the matter. Among the
suggestions in this circular were the following :
(a) An outline of revised standards of accommodation and care.
(b) That local authorities make greater use of their powers to place and pay for
children in special need in private groups (the Council is empowered to recover
some of the cost from parents according to means).
(c) Some child-minders might be paid a retaining fee in return for their willingness
to accept children in special need placed by the authority.
(d) That the needs of many of the children who would normally be admitted to the
Council's day nurseries could be catered for by admission to local authority
nursery schools or classes.
(e) That encouragement be given to suitable people and organisations to start nursery
groups. In this connection the Minister reminded authorities of their power to
give financial or other assistance to non-profit making organisations which provide
day care facilities for children in the same groups as those admitted to Council
day nurseries.
(f) That authorities themselves might also run part-time nursery groups using existing
premises and voluntary staff.
In his circular the Minister stated that he appreciated that expansion of day care
facilities, where these are provided directly by local health authorities, or arranged by
them, would not be easy in the present economic situation, and some authorities might
not be able to implement suggestions made in the circular until some relaxation of the
current restraint on public spending was possible.
He suggested that local health authorities may feel it right, in the light of the
relative needs for facilities of different kinds in their areas, to divert some resources
from other services in order to extend day care facilities without increasing the total
expenditure. The extent to which day care facilities could be expanded in this way
would be for the authorities themselves to decide and they were asked to consider what
may be possible in the short term, and also whether any extension of facilities was
needed in the long term.
The Council had already approved the up-grading of Gilford Lodge Day Nursery
by ten places provided that this could be met by the existing budget provisions and on
the specific suggestions made in the circular the Council agreed that I should implement,
if the financial position permitted, a proposal that to meet the needs of special cases, up
to five children at any one time should be permitted to be placed in suitably selected
private groups at a fee not exceeding £1 Os. Od. per day per child.
Welfare Foods
The Council is responsible for the distribution of welfare foods (National Dried
Milk, cod liver oil, fruit juices, etc.) supplied by the department of Health and Social
Security.
In addition various proprietary brands of dried milk and dietary supplements are
sold at the child health clinics on the recommendation of the medical officers, health
visitors or family doctor. I gratefully acknowledge the work of all voluntary helpers.
Cervical Cytology
During the year 1,123 women made 1,285 attendances at the six well-woman
clinics in the Borough. Eight women had positive smear tests. All were referred to
their personal medical attendant for further investigation.
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