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99
It will be seen that two main provisions are incorporated
in section 13.
" First, the duty, laid upon all local education authorities,
" of the medical inspection of children at a stated time and on
" such other occasions as the Board of Education may direct;
" and secondly, the power given to all local education authorities
" of making arrangements, to be sanctioned by the Board, for
" attending to the health and physical condition of the children
" in elementary schools."
The memorandam states :—
" The present Act is not intended to supersede the
" powers which have long been exercised by sanitary authorities
" under various Public Health Acts, but is meant to serve
" rather as an amplification and a natural development of
" previous legislation."
" Organisation.—The duties thrown upon the Board
" consist in advising local education authorities as to the
" manner in which they should carry out the provisions of the
" Act, and in supervising the work they are called upon to
" undertake ; in giving such directions as may be necessary
" regarding the frequency and method of inspection in particular
" areas; and in considering and sanctioning such arrangements
" for attending to the health and physical condition of the
" children as maybe submitted to them by individual authorities.
" The Board will also collate the records and reports made by
" the Authorities and will present an annual report to
" Parliament."
" The duty of carrying out the actual inspection has
" necessarily been entrusted by Parliament to the local
" education authorities and not to the Board."
" In view of the varied influences which affect, directly
" or indirectly, the health of the children of the nation, it is
" manifestly of the highest importance that the administration
" of this Act should rest upon a broad basis of public health.
" The Board advise the use to the utmost extent the existing
" machinery of Medical and Sanitary Administration, developing
" and supplementing it as required, rather than supplanting it
" by bringing into existence new agencies, partially redundant
" and possibly competing."
" The Board view the entire subject of school hygiene
" not as a speciality or as a group of specialities existing by and