ABSTRACT
The Wandsworth Childcare Campaign joined with other London organizations to form the London Nursery Campaign. Autocratic control is very depressing for members of staff. However much the community nurseries differ in other respects, they all agree that some form of regular discussion is necessary – about day-to-day running of the nursery as well as about overall policy. For some nurseries there is even a danger of going overboard with too many meetings and getting too self-conscious. The campaign included workplace nurseries to begin with, but then the workplace nursery movement was hived off into another organization – a contentious split. Nurseries have professionally trained staff, externally set agendas and standards, and national curricular frameworks. The Greater London Council was exceptional, but most of the local campaigns and local community nurseries throughout the country received local authority grants. Switches in funding from direct local authority grants for nurseries to tax relief and benefits for individual parents have led to large-scale privatization.
