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37
Commission on the Poor Laws, several interesting experiments and
suggestions claim attention.
School Clinics have been suggested as an immediate solution
of the problem of dealing with the defects discovered by medical
inspection. Without pronouncing an opinion on their general
utility I think that at the present time Willesden does not present
a favourable field for the experiment.
The Provident Dispensaries and the Public Medical Service
which serves the eastern part of the district offer a more promising
relief of our immediate necessities.
It would perhaps be premature to enter into details of systems
which, however appropriately they may lend themselves to local
requirements, have not so far extended their operations so as to
cover the whole of the district. As, however, it has been publicly
announced that a neighbouring Local Education Authority is considering
a scheme approved by the Hampstead Public Medical
Service for the treatment of school children found at the statutory
medical inspection to be defective, I think it desirable to call attention
to the organisation in question.
Section 13 Sub-section (b) of the Education (Administrative
Provisions) Act, 1907, includes among the powers and duties
of a Local Education Authority "the power to make such arrangements
as may be sanctioned by the Board of Education for attending
to the health and physical condition of the children educated in
public elementary schools."
Whether the Local Education Authority will avail themselves
of this power to deal with a problem which the figures show to be
of urgent importance, they must in their wisdom and with the
facts before them decide.
In considering the question, I think the agencies to which I
have referred should receive attention, possessing as they do the
approval of local organised medical opinion.
B 2