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69
would bo glad to adopt this course, and they hoped that the Borough Council
would be prepared to co operate, upon the basis of the draft agreement, in
securing the cleansing of school children infested with vermin.
On receiving this letter the attention of your Committee was called to the
numbers of school children attending the Council's Cleansing Station for the
four weeks prior to the Deputation attending before the County Council's Committee
and the four weeks subsequent thereto, which were as follows : —
Four weeks Before the Attendance of the Deputation.—63, 62, 53, and 88
children attended the Station each week respectively.
Four weeks Subsequent to the Attendance ot the Deputation. — 14, 15, 17 and
13 children attended the Station each week respectively.
This falling off in attendance may have been the result of the absence of
School Nurses on holidays, or because of their engagements elsewhere, but
nevertheless your Committee could not but regard the small number of school
children who, during the second four weeks referred to, attended the Station
as a serious obstacle in the way of effective cleansing of the children, and it
strengthened them in their opinion that it was imperative, if the satisfactory
grappling with this matter was to be attained, that the children should be
directed to attend for cleansing at intervals of not more than three days until
completely cleansed.
In the absence of such a provision in the proposed agreement your Committee
could not see their way to advise the Council to enter into the agreement, and
the County Council were so informed.
The matter was subsequently under discussion and consideration between the
Committees of both Bodies, and on the 8th November, 1911. the Solicitor to the
County Council wrote saying that the County Council would have no objection
to the following words being added to the proposed agreement:—
(a) The London County Council will endeavour to obtain the attendance
of children at intervals of not more than three days, provided that in
cases under Statutory Notice the intervals shall be determined by the
necessities of the legal procedure.
As the printed scheme of the County Council for the cleansing of bodies
and clothing of verminous school children provided that the Medical Officer of
Health of the Borough Council should receive a form stating that a Statutory
Notice under section 122 of the Children Act, 1908, would be served upon the
parent or guardian of a child in each case where legal proceedings were contemplated,
your Committee considered it unnecessary to refer in the proposed
agreement to the need for such a notice.
Your Committee learned, however, that the County Council considered it
necessary, in cases where proceedings against, the parents or guardians of school
children were to be taken, to cut the children's hair, because the Act says that the
Officer of the Education Authority may convey to a cleansing station and
there detain a child until the cleansing has been effected, and that the
only alternatives were, that they shall detain the child for about a week for
repeated cleansings without cutting the hair, or shall cut the hair and complete