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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
JUBILEE OF THE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE,
1907—1957
The Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health in his
Annual Report for the years 1954/55 concluded as follows: —
"EPILOGUE"
"It was the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of
1907 which first provided the statutory basis for our school
health service. Before the next report in this series is issued,
half a century will therefore have elapsed since the laying of the
foundations of that service. It is right and proper that from time
to time we should look back at what has been accomplished; so
may we gain encouragement from past successes, so may we
humbly remind ourselves of the problems to which we have not
yet found the answer. The forthcoming Jubilee is one of those
times when it is specially appropriate that we should look back
and consider the conditions with which our predecessors had to
deal. The reports which they submitted contain much which
would be of interest to this generation and I hope that principal
school medical officers will use this material for a picture in their
annual reports of the conditions existing in those pioneering
days. An understanding of the difficulties which then had to br
overcome should serve as a stimulus to us in our task of building
on the foundations which were then so well and truly laid."
As an appendix to this report are given extracts of annual
reports, in chronological order, written by Medical Officers at the turn
of the last century.
Since the time of these pioneers great strides have been made to
improve the happiness and well-being of our people, particularly
the young, but it could well be that Barking people of 2,000 A.D
will find our times as equally backward as we find the early years
of this twentieth century.
Following the Appendix containing the extracts of annual reports
will be found a table illustrating briefly the changing pattern of the
standards of health of the people of Barking from 1900 to date.
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