View report page

attraction, such as television, is a special cause of lateness to bed, it is the parents who
must be persuaded to exercise the necessary control. It seems likely, however, that if
a parent allows a child to be late to bed for one reason, be it television or the cinema,
that same parent would probably permit late hours, in the absence of that particular
attraction, for other reasons such as late play in the street or the park.
The attention of the Heads of schools was again drawn to the matter and they were
requested to lose no opportunity of bringing parents to a realisation of the importance
of sleep.
Research and investigation
Mr. K. P. Murphy, of the University of Manchester Department of Education of the
Deaf was granted permission to carry out intelligence tests on deaf children in the
Council's schools, as part of the survey of abilities and achievement of pupils in schools
for the deaf and partially deaf being carried out by the Medical Research Council's
Committee on the Educational Treatment of Deafness.
Mr. P. Venning, of the Department of Anatomy, University College, London,
was granted permission to carry out X-ray examinations of the feet of a group of
children as part of his study of skeletal growth.
Dr. M. Morley, of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, was granted permission
to examine a group of children as part of her enquiry into postural defects.
DENTAL SERVICES
the council's Chief Dental Officer and Principal School Dental Officer reports as
follows :
Since 1951 there has been an increase in the number of operative and inspection
sessions in the Council's dental services but, as may be seen from the graphs on page
123 there was little change in 1954 and 1955.
Recruitment of new staff in 1955 almost balanced resignations. The number of
full-time dental officers fell and in part-time staff there has been about 50 per cent,
turn-over in 12 months. Dentistry is a personal service and such frequent staff changes
naturally disturb many patients and parents and give rise to many problems in supervision
and co-ordination of effort.
Table I shows the staff numbers at the end of the year but does not reveal the position
referred to above, with its resultant adverse effect upon the standards and efficiency,
of this multi-surgery dental service.