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During 1903-1904, work had so rapidly extended that it could not be systematically
carried out for want of staff, and what had been done showed the serious conditions
existing in various directions.
The Education (London) Act, 1903, which applied the Education Act of the previous
year to London, abolished the School Board and transferred its powers to the London
County Council. On the 1st May, 1904, the London County Council took over from
the School Board for London 521 schools, having an aggregate average attendance of
485,343 pupils, and also became to some extent responsible for 438 voluntary schools
with 175,408 pupils.
Sir Shirley Murphy, then Medical Officer of Health to the Council, stated in his
report: 'The year 1904 will always be notable in the sanitary history of the Metropolis
for the reason that by the transfer of the administration of the Education Acts to the
London County Council, a health authority is brought into direct relation with a large
proportion of the child population of London. This change in administration gives
opportunity for the study by a health authority of the conditions which affect the
growth and development of the young, and for the application of measures which tend
to promote improvement in their physical condition. It gives greater opportunity,
moreover, for the study of the behaviour of communicable maladies which affect the
whole population, but which have their greatest incidence upon children, and for the
application of knowledge thus obtained to the limitation of risks which are inseparable
from the aggregation of young and susceptible persons, and which have in the past
been productive of regrettable results upon the prevalence of disease, not only among
school children but among the population at ages other than those of school life.'
It is always salutary to reflect upon the words of the early workers in any field, and
such applies particularly to the above quotation by Sir Shirley Murphy.
By this transfer of the administration of the Education Acts to the Council, the
health authority was brought into direct relation with a large proportion of the child
population of London. From the start, much attention was paid to the care of handicapped
children and the welfare of pupils in general.
A scheme was prepared for dealing with the general condition of the pupils, the
prevention of diffusion of infections, the promotion of cleanliness, and the sanitary
conditions of school buildings. To carry out this work, one permanent 'half-time'
assistant and twenty 'quarter-time' temporary assistants were appointed. For dealing
with ringworm and securing personal cleanliness in the schools a superintendent and
twenty-six nurses were added to the staff.
In 1904, as a result of the revelations of the Army Recruiting Boards about the
number of remediable physical defects found in recruits during the South African War,
a Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration was appointed. Both this body,
and an Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Training, reported strongly in favour
of the institution of a medical service in schools.
By the end of May, 1905, the Education Committee had reported upon each of the
438 non-provided schools, suggesting that 92 schools, accommodating about 69,000
pupils, were so defective that closure seemed the only remedy, and that 282 schools
required material alterations. By 1907,77 of these had been closed, six transferred to the
Council, and all except 56 brought up to the Council's requirements.
Care committees and children's care organisers
Care committees were first formed in July, 1907, when two temporary social workers
(a man and a woman) were appointed to form the care committees in poor schools and
to report on the methods of selecting necessitous children. In submitting his report the
chairman of the Education Committee's Sub-Committee on Underfed Children, said:
Assumption of
responsibility
by the
Council
Care
committees
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