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Medical and Dental Inspection.
Regulation 10 introduces certain changes in the requirements
regarding medical and dental inspections. Under the
1945 Regulations three general medical inspections were
prescribed during a pupil's attendance at school, at specified
periods in his school career. Under the new Regulations a
minimum of three is prescribed during the perioa of school
life, but it is left to the Authority's discretion when to
arrange these and also whether to arrange for additional
general inspections. Many Authorities limiting the number
of general inspections to three will no doubt decide to conduct
two of them during the first and last years of compulsory
school attendance, and to carry out the intermediate
inspection either during the last year in the primary school or
during the first year in the secondary school. An arrangement
of this kind has much to recommend it; in particular
it is useful for record purposes for the three main inspections
to cover complete age groups. Where this is done,
however, it will also be desirable to inspect young children
under five as soon as possible after they begin school, in
addition to inspecting them with the five year age group,
and to inspect during their last year at school pupils who
stay at school beyond fifteen.
Authorities will notice that in Regulation 10(l)(a) the
Minister may approve arrangements which do not provide
for as many as three general inspections during the period
of compulsory school age. This provision has been included
to enable Authorities who wish to do so to experiment with
other arrangements not based on periodical medical inspections.
Where it is possible, for instance, for the school doctor
to visit the schools regularly (e.g., at least two or three times
a term), it may be found preferable for him to see on each
occasion such children as are brought to his attention bv
parents, teachers, or the school nurse instead of seeing all
the children of a particular age group at infrequent intervals,
The Minister will be prepared to consider sympathetically
any proposals which Authorities may wish to put forward.
In deciding whether or not to approve them she will be
guided by the extent to which they appear likely to make a
positive contribution to the efficiency of the preventative
work of the School Health Service.
Regulation 10(l)(b) requires an Authority to conduct
a dental inspection of every pupil as soon as possible after
his admission to a maintained school and on " such later
occasions as may be practicable and necessary The
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