page_title: National Children's Centre
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: National Children's Centre / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Brian Jackson House - the Huddersfield HQ of the National Children's Centre
context_page_description: The National Children’s Centre renamed the Yorkshire Children's Centre in 2013 to better reflect its scope, is a child-care centre which was founded in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England in 1975 by the National Educational Research and Development Trust. Brian Jackson, co-author with Dennis Marsden of Education and the Working Classes, founded the trust. NCC remains the centre's legal name.
context_section_description: The trust's honorary vice presidents were Keith Joseph and David Sainsbury, and Denis Healey was a trustee. The NCC was established as "a multidisciplinary center - deliberately based outside London - where work on improving all aspects of childhood could be pursued. Sometimes this was to be through research, sometimes through innovative action, sometimes by informing the media or by discussing progress with politicians, administrators, or members of the many professions that touch on the field." Jackson and the NERDT enlisted Hazel Wigmore as director (until 2001), and two other teachers (John Cashman and Raymond Ball) trained with her at Huddersfield Polytechnic (now the University of Huddersfield. Jackson worked tirelessly to further causes connected with the education and welfare of children. His imaginative and innovative ideas, combined with Wigmore's energy and organisational skills, enabled the implementation of unusual practical schemes and research projects. The centre's first home of the National Children's Centre was in Huddersfield's Longroyd Bridge neighbourhood, in a 1940s building (now listed) which straddles the river on long legs and is adjacent to a bus depot and workshop.
  In 1974, Sonia Jackson (Brian's wife) had been involved in the production of the first Action Register on Childminding, part of the National Research Project on Childminding commissioned by the Social Science Research Council and run by Brian. It indicated that although registered childminders cared for more children than all local authority, private or factory day nurseries combined and had more influence at this stage of a child's development than a working parent, only one percent of childminders received services or support. The survey also discovered a large number of unregistered childminders. In 1974, responsibility for the registration of childminders moved from health departments to the new social-services departments. Based on Brian's findings—that childminders wanted the tools for the job, in addition to advice and support—groups were set up in the ground-floor nursery at Longroyd Bridge. Transportation for the women and children was provided by the NCC's minibus; it was rare for a woman to have a car at that time, and public transport was difficult with more than one child. A toy and book library, loans of safety equipment, a bulk-buying scheme, toy-repair service and access to training were available. Local childminders, including Sheila Wenzel (who later chaired the Kirklees Childminders' Association), worked with the NCC to improve services and conditions for childminders.
  Jackson proposed to the BBC that "a television series with appropriate back-up would be one way of improving the quality of care offered to the young children of working mothers" (NCC Quinquennial Report 1980). Other People's Children, a 19-part series, was screened three times a week in 1977 and repeated in 1978. Seven hundred viewing groups were set up around England, not confined to childminders or pre-school workers. The BBC published a supporting handbook, which was subsidised by the Health Education Council and distributed free by social-services departments to all registered childminders throughout the country. The NCC was intimately involved in the production of the series and the handbook. 
  In the final programme, the idea that viewing groups or local childminders might unite led to the foundation of the National Childminding Association in Birmingham in 1977.
  In May 1977, the first Child Care Switchboard experiment began. Funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the switchboard used NCC staff and the resources of radio stations in six large UK cities to help reduce child abuse. Switchboards took calls from anyone with concerns (or questions) about child care. Reassurance, advice, and help was available from a team of professional advisers with access to a data bank of specialists. The experiment was replicated in Australia in 1979 with the country's Care For Kids careline.
  The 1976 purchase of a former Bradford double-decker bus saw th
caption: Brian Jackson House, the centre's second home in 1987
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