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The Voluntary School Care Committees, appointed by the Education Committee,
have now been in existence for nearly 50 years and their contribution to the well-being
of London school children continues to be an essential part of the School Health Service.
In 1948 at the inception of the National Health Service Act, their voluntary workers
numbered 1,430. The figure now stands at 2,436. This number is the more noteworthy
when it is compared with the 600 workers in the whole county who in 1945, as the
schools settled down after wartime disturbance, were doing this work.
Care committee workers attended 95 per cent. of the medical inspections and their
responsibility for the following-up, in spite of the greatly improved response on the
part of parents, is still a valuable link with the home and family through which other
and deeper problems may be revealed. It is impossible to assess exactly the contribution
they make to the prevention of ill-health, but its value is indeed considerable.
Since the amendment to the Care Committee Constitution, referred to in the 1954
report, the co-operation between the care committee workers and the School nursing
sisters health visitors has steadily increased, greatly to the benefit of the work for, in
this as in all fields of social work, the paramount need in the now highly developed
social services in London is closer co-operation between workers in the field.
Medical inspection rooms in schools
In a large number of schools, particularly voluntary schools, there is no separate accommodation
for the medical inspection of school children. School halls, spare classrooms
and in some cases the head teacher's room, have to be used for this purpose. Opportunity
is taken when minor improvements are contemplated to press for a separate room for
this work. Owing to financial restrictions necessarily imposed by the Ministry of
Education only a small fraction of the money necessary has been allocated for this
purpose so that the rate of improvement has been slow. Nevertheless, during 1955
improvements in the accommodation for medical inspections were made in 60 schools
at a cost of £5,240.
The position in new schools, however, is very much better. The planning included
a medical inspection room and in the larger secondary schools a medical suite of rooms.
During the year new buildings have been brought into use and in each case suitable
accommodation has been provided for the medical inspection and treatment of pupils,
viz. :
Name of school Nominal roll
Catford 1,190 girls
Dick Sheppard 900 „
Holloway 840 boys
Mayfield 1,620 girls
Woodberry Down 1,200 mixed
Pupils on school rolls
At the end of 1955 there were 442,917 pupils on the day school roll. 314,014 children
of primary and secondary school age were in attendance at county schools, 104,764 at
voluntary or assisted schools, 15,790 children under five years of age in nursery schools
and classes or in primary schools and 8,349 children in day special schools.
Medical inspection
The School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils Regulations, 1953, require that
(except under special arrangements) general medical inspections shall be carried out at
least three times during a child's school life, but it is left to the discretion of the Local
Education Authority to fix the ages at which these and any other medical inspections
which may be necessary, are carried out. In London the practice for many years has
been to carry out as a routine four general medical inspections at specified ages during
school life. Such 'routine' inspections, however, constitute only a third of the total
number of medical inspections each year. The 're-inspection' of pupils noted for
treatment or observation, the 'special' inspection of pupils specifically referred to the
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