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There are now 18 sanitary authorities with whom the Council has agreements
respecting the cleansing of verminous children, and in addition, there are seven
centres organised by voluntary committees for head cleansing work. These, with
the Council's own 10 centres, make a total of 35 centres, which are available for the
cleansing of school children throughout London. Whilst in 1925 no new stations
were opened or made available for children, extensions to existing facilities were
provided at the stations of the Deptford, Chelsea and Hammersmith Borough
Councils, and the Council's own centre at Trafalgar-square School (Stepney), but the
head cleansing centre at Hammersmith, organised by a voluntary committee, ceased
work at the end of March.
Cleansing
scheme.
Under the Council's cleansing scheme, there were, in 1925, 88,859 verminous
children, whose condition was brought to the notice of the parents by means of
advice cards, and who were referred to the cleansing centres for following up. Of
this number, 40,134 attended voluntarily at the various centres for cleansing, but
in 24,558 cases it was necessary to serve, after a further re-examination, statutory
notices in accordance with Section 87 of the Education Act, 1921. Following upon
these notices, 6,017 children attended the centres voluntarily for cleansing, but of
the remainder, 15,061 were found verminous after a still further examination, and
were taken compulsorily by the nurses for cleansing. Among the latter, 810 were
subsequently found to have relapsed, and police-court proceedings were instituted
in 689 of these cases.
It is convenient here to give a brief outline of the machinery of the Cleansing
Scheme. Each district school nurse has under her charge a group of from 7 to 15
adjacent schools. Each school is visited in accordance with a rota prepared each
term, all children are inspected, and in appropriate cases advice cards are forwarded
to the parents. In the more severe cases, the facilities provided for cleansing at
the various centres are brought to the notice of the parents, and all such cases are
referred to the nurse working at the bathing centre. The latter nurse visits the
schools, re-examines all the cases which have been referred to her by the school nurse,
and where the condition justifies it she communicates with the attendance branch,
which arranges through the attendance officer for the service personally on the
parents of a statutory notice, as provided by the Education Act. This notice
again draws the attention of the parent to the facilities provided by the Council at
the various centres for cleansing, but a warning is also given that failure to observe
properly the directions as to cleansing may lead to the child being taken to the centre
and cleansed as a compulsory matter. Police Court proceedings against parents
are only instigated where a child is found to have relapsed to a verminous condition
after having been compulsorily cleansed. It is the practice of the nurses to ascertain
whether there are any extenuating home circumstances before asking for the institution
of court prosecutions; in many cases, indeed the parents concerned are invited
to the centres to discuss the matter with them.
Children taken for compulsory cleansing are taken either "by hand" in the
care of a nurse, or by means of motor conveyances. The advantage of these conveyances
is that schools in outlying areas remote from cleansing centres are brought
within reach of the centres.
During the previous year only one motor conveyance was available capable
of holding 20 children, which was seldom used to its full capacity. At the early
part of 1925, two vehicles were substituted with comparatively slight additional
cost, and with the advantage of greater flexibility in the arrangements ; the number
of children conveyed by motor conveyance in 1925 was 7,865, as compared with
4,531 in 1924.
As in previous years, the borough medical officers were informed concerning
children dealt with under the Council's cleansing scheme, in order that the home
conditions might be remedied under the General Powers Act 1922. During 1924,