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—92—
All children on being admitted to school for the first time are
dentally inspected at about the same time that the usual medical
inspection of the entrants is carried out at the same school. Treatment
is then offered at the School Clinic and when once treatment
has been given the child is dentally inspected and, if necessary,
dentally treated once every year. In this way a child may be kept
under continuous dental supervision and treatment throughout its
whole school life. Steps are being taken to insist on treatment being
carried out in those children whose parents refuse the facilities
offered at the Clinic. Some parents, and fortunately they are
few in number, promise to have their children treated privately,
and unless treatment is insisted upon by repeated and persistent
visits from the school nurses, the promise is not fulfilled. So far
only the worst cases have been threatened with proceedings under
the Children Act, but the time has now come for insisting upon
treatment in all but the mildest cases of dental defect.
(i) Crippling Defects and Orthopaedics.— In previous
years it was left to the parents to take their children who required
orthopaedic treatment to London Hospitals, the only provision
made by the Local Education Authority being for massage and
remedial treatment at the Ealing King Edward Memorial Hospital.
It must be admitted that in many instances the treatment was far
too late in being sought, and that repeated visits at the hospital
for supervision and treatment were made in an haphazard and
irregular fashion, consequently the results were not as satisfactory
as they might have been. Moreover, attendance at school was
irregular and the education of the child materially suffered. The
constant supervision by the school medical staff, and especially the
medical examination of each crippled child at least once a year,
was of great benefit, yet the results were far from satisfactory.
A letter from the Board of Education in 1924, stating that the
Managers of the National Orthodaepic Hospital, Great Portland
Street, were considering the extension of their provision for orthopaedic
treatment at Stanmore and that they would be willing to
undertake the treatment of crippled children sent there by Local
Education Authorities in the neighbourhood, caused the whole
question to be considered, with the result that a scheme, outlined
in the report here printed, was adopted with one modification