View report page

172
CO-OPERATION OF PARENTS.
Parents are invited to attend at the routine medical inspections,
and their presence is welcomed, as it gives the medical officer the
opportunity of giving personal help and advice. Suggestions can
thus be made both for the remedy of existing defects in the child
and also for the prevention of future ill-health in directions indicated
by the result of the medical inspection.
During 1925 62 per cent, of the children were accompanied by
parents or guardians at routine medical inspections at Elementary
Schools, while 36 per cent, were accompanied in respect of inspections
at Secondary Schools.
CO-OPERATION OF TEACHERS, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
OFFICERS AND VOLUNTARY BODIES.
I have again to record, with the greatest appreciation, the
close and cordial co-operation which exists between teachers, school
attendance officers and the public health department in making
school medical work effective. The success of the work is ultimately
dependent on the teacher. The latter is at the centre of school
medical work, the immediate purpose of which is to fit the child for
the education which the teacher is waiting to give; and teachers
happily recognise its value to that end. The school attendance
officers are constantly giving most ungrudging help in drawing
attention to children who might otherwise escape medical supervision.
The voluntary School Care Committees have continued to
encourage and assist in the provision of treatment, and succeed in
individual cases in obtaining consent to treatment where previous
efforts had failed.
The Croydon Council of Social Service has given much information
and assistance in many directions in dealing with necessitous
cases for whom provision could not readily be made.
Close co-operation is maintained with the Inspector of the
National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
BLIND, DEAF EPILEPTIC AND PHYSICALLY
DEFECTIVE CHILDREN.
The register of physically defective children has been revised