NURSERY CLASSES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Children aged 2 - 4 _1971. 1972

Full-time 29,849 30,366

Part-time 33,737 42,988

63,586

Source: Statistics of Education, Schools, HMSO, 1972.

ii) Day Care Facilities

Day care facilities, where the emphasis is on caring rather than on education, can be classified as follows:

- Day nurseries, i.e. local authority and private day nurseries

- Registered premises and registered persons - Pre-school playgroups

- Home helps

Local Authority and Private Day Nurseries

Local authority day nurseries provide a day care service for priority children from six weeks to five years of age. They are normally open for ten or eleven hours on five days a week for fifty or fifty-two weeks of the year. Standards of accommodation and care are laid down by the Department of Health and Social Security. Day nurseries are staffed in an approximate ratio of

1

5

nursery nurses* Charges may he made hut should not exceed, in principle, a sum based on the actual cost plus a fair proportion of central administration costs. When fixing charges, local

authorities have to keep in mind the means of the persons concerned. On the D H S S fs own admission, there were at the 21 March 1972,

466

85

Local authorities are also responsible for the registration of private nurseries and have a duty to see that certain standards are maintained. There are, at present, 853 private institutions registered with local authorities and providing day care for 23,000 children. These are essentially children of middle and upper-income parents who can afford this type of child care. Private nursery fees vary but may run as high as £8.00 to £10*00 a week. In addition, hours of opening are somewhat limited from 9*00 a.m* to 4*00 p.m., which is of little help to the average working mother whose working hours are more likely to extend to 5*00 p.m. or 6.00 p.m.

Registered Persons and Registered Premises

The other main form of ful1-day care is provided by child-minders who, as a group, have flourished in recent years because of the shortage of day nurseries. Child-minders are private persons, usually women, who provide both all day and sessional care for children under five in their own home against financial reward.

There are 24,331 registered child-minders in Britain providing ful1-day care for 55,334 children. These people are generally selected among women who have successfully reared children of their own or who

1 Memorandum to the House of Commons Select Committee on the fEmployment of W o m e n 1 by the Department of Health & Social Security, Session 1972/73*

- 95 -

have child care qualifications. The Department of Health is very concerned about the standards of the service provided, but in spite of all the precautions and increased controls, it is quite likely that a substantial number of registered child-minders do not provide care of as high a standard as could be desired. The problem, however, lies more with the widespread development of illicit child-minding. Illicit child-minders are unregistered and, consequently, evade all controls from government inspectors or local authority social workers. This makes child-minding more hazardous, particularly so in overcrowded urban areas.

Registered premises

Registered premises include those premises registered under Section I of the Hurseries and Child-minder Act 1948 for the care of children,

amended by Section 60 of the Public Health Act

1968

In terms of total numbers, factory nurseries are relatively unimportant, catering for only

2,156

public sector, where female employees are also found in abundance, there is a growing demand for the development of office-based day care facilities. Thus, 77 day nurseries have been set up in hospitals in England and Wales for staff children. At the Cardiff office of the Inland Revenue, an

experimental day nursery has been recently set up to look after the children of their civil servants.

Trade Unions are somewhat divided on the subject of office or factory- based day care facilities. Their main objection is that by tying the provision of day care to that of job continuity, coercive pressures could be exerted over employees in relation to their children. They also argue that it is not the responsibility of employers to provide such amenities

but that of the community. Most unions, however, accept the short­ comings of the present situation and would like to see both forms encouraged. Some, even suggest that employers should be granted special incentives.

Pre-school Playgroups

Pre-school playgroups are private organisations^", some of which are registered under the 1948 Act, run on a neighbourhood basis and staffed by voluntary helpers. Many groups are affiliated to the Pre­ school Playgroups Association which claim 7,500 members (groups and individuals) caring for 275,000 children. The actual number of children is difficult to estimate since attendance records are not required, except for those groups registered under the Act.

The movement represents, in fact, the most remarkable expansion in pre-school British education since the middle of the last decade.

b ) Facilities for Over Five Year Olds

Very little attention appears to be given to after school and holiday activities for older children of working mothers. Holiday camps, even those privately organised, are few in number and very few schools allow use of playground facilities during the vacations. Some local authorities are now showing concern over this and attempt to encourage the development of fplay leadership1 schemes in schools and parks in the summer. British school holidays last about 6 weeks in the summer, 4 weeks at Easter and 3 weeks at Christmas. The provision of school meals or canteen facilities is normal in most schools during term time, but very rare during the holiday periods yet it is of vital importance for working mothers. This is probably the most pressing problem and an urgent reassessment of the situation is no doubt urgently required.

c) Future Developments

2

The latest White Paper on Education , which sets out the educational

1 Initially formed by middle-class mothers to remedy the lack of provision for pre-school children, the idea spread to other areas

with even greater needs.

policies for the next decade, envisages the extension of part-time