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25
Nursery Groups
At the end of the year the Health Department had three directly run nursery
groups. These are set up at the George Downing Estate where sessions were
increased to seven per week (four in the morning and three in the afternoon),
Hawksley Court and Florence Court. The latter opened in February 1970 for two
mornings and two afternoons per week. These groups were all set up under Phase 1
of the Urban Aid programme and have places for a total of 55 children. Children
may attend part-time and 133 were on the register at 31.12.70.
Three groups are also still held at the John Scott Health Centre, Elsdale
Street and Richmond Road Centres under the supervision of the Centre Superintendent.
These were formerly known as occasional creches; a similar creche
held at Barton House Centre closed when the nearby group at Hawlsley Court was
started.
The extension of the Health Department nursery groups originally envisaged
has not materialised but there has been a welcome growth of interest and
initiative on the part of private individuals and organisations to set up
voluntary play groups. At the end of the year there were ten registered private
play groups with a total of 201 places. A number of other applications were "in
the pipeline".
The play group liason committee, set up in June 1969 in an attempt to
co-ordinate future action in the Borough, met again during the year. Meetings
have also been held with the various organisations concerned with play group
provision in Hackney -The Inner London Pre-School Play Groups Association, Save
the Children Fund and Hackney Community Relations Council.
The development of interest was given a considerable boost by the aid
granted by the Home Office under the Urban Aid programme. In November approval
was given to expenditure of £6,000 under Phase 3 of the programme. (The Home
Office grant 75% of this sum and the Council is responsible for the balance).
Although this sum fell far short of the total requested it was nevertheless most
welcome.
Permission was also received from the Home Office for the £3,500 approved
under Phase 2 to be made available for voluntary play groups in community halls
as the planned extension of directly provided groups had not materialised. At
the end of the year, grants to two new play groups in community halls had been
approved.
Training courses for people interested in becoming play group leaders are
run by the Inner London Pre-School Play Groups Association in conjunction with
the inner London Education Authority and completion of the Pre-School Play
Groups Association course has become the standard qualification for this work.
During the year the PPA also ran preparatory courses in the Borough for mothers
under the title of "Can you help your toddler" and "Living with young children".
These courses aim to help parents and anyone concerned with children; they deal
in particular with the importance of play for children's development, including
practical ideas for play material. A supervised play group is provided for
children under school age as part of the course. Attendance at one of these
courses may lead to the longer course for play group leaders but mothers are in
no way committed to this.
The development of nursery education is lamentably slow and against this
background there can be no doubt whatever of the valuable role of the private
play group as a means of helping both the child and its mother.