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38
schools, and gave authority to their Medical Officer (Education) to examine the person
and clothing of any child attending any school provided or maintained by the Council,
to ascertain whether the person or clothing of such child is infested with vermin or is
in a foul or filthy condition, and to require either the parent or other person
responsible for such child to effect the cleansing of its person and clothing within 24
hours of the receipt of a notice to that effect.
If the parent or other person responsible fails to comply with such notice, the
Council or its duly authorised Officers may remove the child from the school and
cause the person and clothing of such to be properly cleansed in suitable premises and
with suitable appliances, and detain the child until such cleansing has been effected.
With regard to the "suitable premises," and "suitable appliances" referred to
above, Section 38 of the same Act enacts that the Council and any Sanitary Authority
in the metropolis may make arrangements for use by the Council of any such
premises or appliances as the Sanitary Authority may possess.
The London County Council Act confined these provisions to the Metropolitan
area, but the Children Act, 1908, confers similar powers on local authorities throughout
the country, and moreover contains a clause which renders the parent, guardian or
other person responsible for the maintenance of the child that has been allowed to get
into such a condition as necessitates renewed action under this Act, liable to a fine not
exceeding ten shillings.
It will be seen, therefore, that Local Education Authorities are now armed with a
weapon wherewith cleanliness of the person and clothing of children attending their
schools may be effectively enforced, and with a view to ensuring its speedy use, an
agreement was entered into between the Corporation of London and the London County
Council, the principal terms of which are are follows:—
(i.) The Corporation to reserve the Cleansing Station on Tuesdays and Thursdays
in each week from two to four p.m., for the exclusive use of such children.
(ii.) The Corporation to properly cleanse at such Station the person and clothing of
any child sent by the Council under this Agreement, providing always that
such child is residing in the City and in attendance at one of the Council's
Public Elementary Schools.
(iii.) The Corporation not to be required to cleanse more than ten children in any
one day.
(iv.) The Corporation to provide sufficient and competent assistants for the purpose
of effecting such cleansing.
(v.) The cleansing of female children to be undertaken by women only.
(vi.) The Cleansing Station to be kept entirely separate from any premises used by
the Corporation for the suspected cases of infectious disease contacts, and
(vii.) The Corporation to effect the cleansing of the home of any child embraced
by this Agreement in all cases where such is reasonably necessary for the
health and cleanliness of the child.
It was at first proposed that the Council should make a contribution of 6d. per
bath per head, but the Corporation decided to bear the entire cost of the cleansing, &c.