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(a) Ill-health, (b) Exclusions.—These two items constitute
the reasons for the bulk of non-attendance at school,
and during the last year about 7,000 children, or 30 per
cent. of the school population in Willesden actually came
under the notice of the School Medical Officer and were
officially excluded by him for one or other of these reasons as
required by the Code. It ought also to be noted that the
work of "following up" after medical inspection already
described is almost entirely work under these two headings,
and the Health Visitor in doing this work is now actually
doing school attendance work, (c) Wilful detention on the
part of the parent.—When this cause operates the usual
excuses giiven are (a) ill-health, (b) want of clothing or feet,
gear. The investigation of such excuses comes particularly
within the scope of a woman's work, especially when she
has had the value of a nurse's training.
These three causes (a), (b) and (c) practically include
all the reasons for non-attendance, as probably not five per
cent. of non-attenders come within classification (d), that
is, "Wilful absence on the part of the child."
Overlapping. Double Visits.—At the present time
much overfapping of effort takes place in connection with
cases absent on account of (i) ill-health and (Li) exclusion
above by reason of visits being paid to the homes both by
health visitors and school attendance officers and the
immediate advantage of unifying the work of health visitors
and school attendance officers under the School Medical
Officer would be that of restricting the number of officials
visiting at the homes for one purpose or another.
Multiplication of Officials.—It is indeed possible at
the present time that a house may be visited by—
(1) The Sanitary Inspector.
(2) The Health Visitor.
(3) The School Attendance
Officer.
Appointed by the
District Council.