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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Organisation
the school health service, like the maternity and child welfare service, is organised
on a divisional basis (see pages 131-149 for reports by divisional medical officers).
In 1956, the voluntary workers of the school care committees, who numbered 2,000
at the end of the year, attended 95 per cent. of the medical inspections. This figure shows
very clearly the importance the care committees attach to carrying out this duty on
behalf of the Council. The attendance of parents at inspections in primary schools on the
average remains high, and the care committee workers still regard the inspections as the
chief way of establishing an easy contact with the children and their parents.
The need for home visits after inspections is decreasing owing to the growing
co-operation of parents ; but it exists in connection with such problems as recuperative
holidays and attendance at specialist clinics of all kinds, both in school treatment centres
and hospitals. These visits provide opportunity for the preparation of the parent and
child and the collection of background information which is made available through the
public health children's care organisers to the doctors.
Medical inspection rooms in schools
There is no legal requirement for the provision of a separate medical inspection room
in a school and consequently in a large number of schools, particularly denominational
schools, there is no special accommodation for this purpose. School halls, spare classrooms,
staff rooms and sometimes the headteacher's room, are used for medical inspection
and mothers have to undress their children in accommodation unsuitable for the
purpose. Whenever substantial improvements to a school are contemplated, the question
of providing a separate medical room is considered. Only a small amount of money is
available for improvements, so that progress is unfortunately slow. Nevertheless, during
1956, improvements in medical accommodation were made in 27 schools, at a cost of
£3,275.
The larger secondary schools now coming into use were planned some years ago
with separate rooms for doctor, nurse and dentist, and provision for waiting space for
parents and children. Building costs continued to rise during the year, but the permitted
cost per place remained unchanged and, consequently, economies had to be made in
planning and in finishing. To help meet this increasingly serious problem, the planning
of medical suites for future construction was revised to provide a smaller area. No
reduction in service is envisaged, but part of the accommodation will be designed in such
a manner as will allow of it being used for other purposes.
Under the school building programme, the following new large secondary schools
were opened during the year, and each was provided with separate rooms for the school
health service :
Name of School Nominal roll
Eltham Green 2,210 mixed
Elliott 2,080 „
Parliament Hill Extension 924 (girls)
Forest Hill 1,350 (boys)
Kynaston 891 „
Quintin 621 (boys)
Hurlingham 1,024 (girls)
Sydenham County Extension 1,178 „
Tulse Hill 2,080 (boys)
Wandsworth County Extension 1,620 „
Pupils on school rolls
At the end of 1956 there were 445,870 pupils on the day school rolls, 316,649 children of
primary and secondary school age were in attendance at county schools, 105,704 at
voluntary or assisted schools, 15,374 children under five years of age in nursery schools
and classes or in primary schools and 8,143 children in day special schools.