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68
15/ January, 1930.
To the Public Health Committee.
CHILDREN UNDER SCHOOL AGE.
I have to report the receipt of an extremely important
circular, signed jointly by the Minister of Health and the
President of the Board of Education, with regard to the
health of children under school age and more particularly
those between two and five years of age. At the request
of the Sub-Committee, copies of this document are being
circulated to members of the Committee. The Ministers
say :—
"The State has made itself responsible for
the health and education of all children from the
age of five onwards. Few children now fail to
go to school and, when they go, their bodily health
receives systematic attention as well as their mental
development.
"Considerable provision has also been made
for supervision of the health of babies during the
first year or two of life under the provisions of
the Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918.
"But there are hundreds of thousands of
children who for three or four years before going
to school have no help, direction or succour from
public sources, however much they may need it.
This gap is unimportant in homes where the conditions
are satisfactory and healthy, where personal
attention is possible by mother or nurse, and where
medical advice is obtainable privately. But many
small children cannot get personal attention where
the home is squalid, where food is bad and
insufficient, where the only play-room is the gutter,
and where ill-health passes unnoticed until chest
trouble, rickets or other ailments have developed.
These conditions, prevalent in parts of all our
cities, cry aloud for attention. It is grossly uneconomic
to allow the health and stamina of infants
to deteriorate till five years old and then to spend
large sums of money in trying to cure them between
the ages of five and fifteen."
The Council's provision with regard to children under
one year of age is fairly extensive and a good deal is already
done for the children between one and five. Where there is
only one child in the family the mother is usually in a
position to bring it frequently to the Welfare Centre and