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REPORT ON THE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
DURING THE YEAR 1956.
To the Chairman and Members of the Welfare and School
Attendance Sub-Committee.
Mr. Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the
School Health Service for the year, 1956, the tenth which
it has been my privilege to present.
The health and nutritional status of the schoolchildren
in the Borough continued, in general, to be satisfactory.
Reference to the statistics on pages 63 to 70 shows the
considerable amount of work carried out by the School
Health Service but it gives no indication of the team work
and the sense of personal responsibility which has animated
the service during the year. This is made possible by the
Excepted District status of the Borough which allows for the
fullest degree of co-operation between school doctors, health
visitors, head teachers, education welfare officers, general
practitioners and parents. Easy access through a local centre
facilitates consultations between the various agencies concerned
with the family aspects of health on which the
well-being of the individual child so frequently depends.
Often, the help of voluntary agencies has to be enlisted and
cases could be quoted where a fund of goodwill from local
organisations has been used to improve the environmental
background of children in need.
The staffing position in the School Dental Service has,
at the time of writing, improved by the appointment of a
further whole-time dentist and, provided this improvement
can be maintained, more attention will be possible to those
aspects of preventive dentistry which have had to be
neglected in recent years. We are still, however, a long way
removed from a staffing position which will ensure a full
programme of inspection and treatment of the school population.
It is pleasing to report that the dental unit at the
Murchison Avenue Clinic is now in operation on a parttime
basis and it is hoped that it may be possible to extend
these facilities should further dental staff become available.
During the year, a pure-tone audiometer was obtained
and is now in regular use in the department. Our present
policy is to give an individual hearing test to all schoolchildren
as soon as possible after their seventh birthday. Our experi-
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