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DAY CARE OF CHILDREN
COUNCIL DAY NURSERIES
14.1.1 At the beginning of 1967, the Council had nine day nurseries, six of which had
been approved by the Ministry for training of nursery nurses. These nurseries provided
places for 460 children and included one special unit for 9 severely handicapped children.
They were as follows:-
(a) Camden Road, 254/256 Camden Road, N.W.I (non-training, 70 places).
(b) Caversham Road, 33-43 Caversham Road, N.W.5 (training, 60 places).
(c) Coram's Garden, 41 Brunswick Square, W.C.I (training, 44 places, including
9 in special unit for severely handicapped children).
(d) Kentish Town, Gospel Oak Grove, N.W.5 (non-training, 45 places). This building
was due for demolition as soon as the Konstam Centre was ready for
occupation early in 1968, and no new admissions were being made toward the
end of the year.
(e) Margaret, 42 Phoenix Road, N.W.I (training, 65 places).
(f) Parkhill, 2 Parkhill Road, N.W.3 (non-training, 30 places).
(g) Pond Street, 27/29 Pond Street, N.W.3 (training, 50 places).
(h) Regents Park, 4 Prince Albert Road, N.W.I (training, 50 places). Owing to
inadequate means of escape in the event of fire the nursery had to be confined
to the ground floor of the building and the effective number of places
reduced to 21.
(i) Woodchurch, 11-13 Woodchurch Road, N.W.6 (training, 75 places).
14.1.2 in addition tne Kingsway (jrecne, administered on an agency basis by the West
London Mission, provided for 52 children at Kingsway Hall, Kingsway, W.C.2; this
nursery had also been approved for nursery nurse training.
14.1.3 Although it has been the policy of the Council to improve provision for the care
of the pre-school child, there is a constant increase in the demand for day nursery
places. The number of top priority children awaiting admission rose from 109 on 1st
January, 1967 to 145 at the end of December.
14.1.4 During 1968, the average daily attendance of children at the Council's day
nurseries fell by 30 to 434; this was caused primarily by the closure of part of the Camden
Road Day Nursery premises on account of structural defects. There was also a run-down
on admissions to Regents Park Day Nursery during the latter part of the year in anticipation
of an early removal to new premises. Kentish Town Day Nursery closed down during
e year, and a new nursery was opened at Konstam Centre shortly afterwards. Because
attendances at Kentish Town had been run down some time before the actual closure, the
new nursery could not be fully occupied until some while after it had opened. Konstam
Centre provides normal day care facilities for 41 children and has in addition a special
unit for 9 handicapped children. This special unit supplements that already in existence
at Coram's Garden Day Nursery, which serves the southern part of the Borough. Such
units will be incorporated as a routine in all day nurseries planned for Camden (see
special Planning section of this Report).
ALTERNATIVE MEANS OF DAY CARE OF CHILDREN
14.2.1 The provision of new or replacement nurseries is a long-term operation dependent
on loan sanction by the central government department. It was thus necessary in 1967 to
seek other ways of solving our immediate problems. The Ministry of Health advised that
the Council had power, through the existing approved proposals under Section 22 of the
National Health Service Act, 1946, to place children in private day nurseries, paying
fees involved and recovering the amounts from the parents in accordance with the assessment
scales; also that the Council could place children with child-minders and pay fees
involved, although here no charge could be made to the parents apart from the recovery of
the cost of any food or articles supplied by the child-minder. In October 1967 the waiting
list of top priority cases stood at 147, and the Council agreed that a small pilot scheme
be started for a period of three months whereby up to 10 children could be placed in
selected private day nurseries; also that authority be given to me to place children with
child-minders. It was hoped that if this scheme proved successful it might provide at
least an interim reduction in the waiting list. In the event the success was such that the
Health Committee agreed to extend the experiment for one year, and at the end of 1968
eleven sponsored children were attending private day nurseries (one attending part-time
only) and one was being looked after by a child-minder.
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