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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
The Inner London Education Authority is responsible for the School Health Service,
but by virtue of an agreement required by Section 32 of the London Government
Act, 1963, there is joint use by the Authority and the Borough Council of professional
staff, premises and equipment. The Medical Officer of Health is the Principal
School Medical Officer of the Inner London Education Authority for the area and
responsible to that authority for the day-to-day running of the service.
Close liaison is maintained with the Medical Adviser's Department and the
Education Officer's Department at County Hall and with the Divisional Education
Officer's Department and head teachers in the Borough. No less important is the
liaison which has been established with hospital consultants and family doctors.
The number of children of school age in the Borough was 45,874 on 31st
December, 1971, and their health remains good. The system of giving every child
a minimum of four medical examinations during its school life continued, starting
with that at school entry and terminating with the school leavers' examination at
which particular attention is paid to the child's choice of future employment, and
whether or not any medical condition may affect that choice. The School Health
Service also arranges for special medical examinations where anxiety is felt by
parents and teachers about the health of a child, for medical examination of children
of 13 and over who undertake part-time employment, and for examination of the
many children who are going on school journeys—both from the point of view
of their fitness to go, and also to ascertain that they are free from any infection.
During the year six schools in the Deptford Educational Priority Area took part
in a trial of a new type of medical examination of five-year-old school entrants.
School doctors and nurses who had been specially trained undertook the trial,
throughout which accuracy and uniformity of testing were monitored by doctors
from the Department of Education and Science and Guy's Hospital. Only six or
seven children were seen at a session, and their parents were visited prior to this
in order that various aspects of the child's previous history, which might have a
bearing on his future development, could be elucidated. Parents were also encouraged
to attend the forthcoming medical examination. Each child was weighed and
measured and was given a normal physical examination, but in addition was given
specialised tests to perform. A specimen of urine was also examined. By this
method, those children who may require special help in school are more easily
recognised. Subsequently it has been recommended that this form of entrant medical
examination should be adopted throughout the Inner London area. My thanks are
due to the head teachers of the participating schools.
Wherever possible, children are educated in ordinary schools. Sometimes, because
of a handicapping condition, this is not possible, and some children will have to
attend special schools. The need for special placement may sometimes depend on
the type of school building available locally. Thus a child with muscular weakness
may be able to attend ordinary infant school, where the accommodation is all at
ground level, but will be unable to manage the stairs of a junior school, or the
hustle and bustle of a large comprehensive school and will then need special
schooling. For children needing special schooling, doctors carry out examinations,
at school or in the home, in order to recommend the type of special schooling most
appropriate to the child's needs.
Some school doctors are trained to assess the needs of the backward child, and
if necessary, to recommend special schooling. The year has been notable for the
inclusion in the educational system of the severely mentally handicapped child.
This has meant that the Intermediate and Junior Training Centres have now become
Watergate School and Greenvale School respectively.
School doctors have been appointed to the new schools opened in the Borough
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