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HOME AND HOSPITAL TUITION
The local education authority has power under Section 56 of the Education
Act, 1944, in special circumstances, to provide primary and secondary education
otherwise than at school. Home and hospital tuition was provided as required.
CHILDREN UNSUITABLE FOR EDUCATION AT SCHOOL
Under Section 57 (amended) of the Education Act, 1944, it is the duty of the
local education authority to ascertain which children in their area are suffering from
a disability of mind of such a nature or to such an extent as to make them unsuitable
for education at school and cause the decision to be recorded and to furnish
to the local health authority a report of the decision.
Before recording a decision under this section with respect to any child, the
local education authority shall give to the parent of the child not less than twentyone
days' notice in writing of their intention to do so, and if within that period the
parent refers to the Secretary of State for Education and Science the question
whether such a decision should be recorded, the decision shall not be recorded except
by the direction of the Secretary of State.
Of the twenty-two cases dealt with under this section, one was referred by
the parent to the Secretary of State for Education and Science, who upheld the
decision of the Education Committee.
Provision is also made under this section for a review of ascertainment by the
local education authority and two children were examined under this section. In
one case, it was recommended the child should continue to be ascertained and in
the other it was recommended that the ascertainment be cancelled and the child
be admitted to a day special school for educationally sub-normal children.
VACCINATION AND IMMUNISATION
Details of the arrangements for vaccination and immunisation under Section 26
of the National Health Service Act, 1946, are given elsewhere in the report. Under
these arrangements children should have received primary immunisation by the
time they are admitted to school but consent forms for diphtheria, tetanus and
poliomyelitis immunisation are issued to all school entrants so that all children
whose parents have not by then taken advantage of the facilities available may
have this further opportunity. In addition, consent forms for diphtheria and tetanus
immunisation are issued for children of eight years of age for reinforcing doses.
Under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, authority has been
given to local health authorities to offer B.C.G. vaccination against tuberculosis to
contacts, to staff likely to be exposed to infection, and to certain groups of children
and students, including school children between their thirteenth and fourteenth
birthdays.
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