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Health Visitors almost solely in connection with this work.
She would also be responsible for seeing that the children
were well-behaved, that attention was paid to orderliness,
tidy eating, cleanliness of the hands, etc., and for referring
to me from time to time children in attendance who did not
appear to require school meals, as well as those who did
not appear to profit by the meals received.
I think the maximum salary of this Health Visitor
should be increased by annual increments of £10 to £160,
instead of £130 as at present, and that she should be
replaced in her district work by a Health Visitor, to be
appointed on the usual terms.
(4) The Selection of Children.
This is a matter of extreme importance.
The original Circular 552 of the Board of Education,
relating to the provision of Meals, issued on 1st January,
1907, contains the following passage:—
“. . . Its object (i.e., the object of the Act) is to
ensure that children attending public elementary schools
shall, so far as possible, be no longer prevented by insufficiency
of suitable food from profiting by the education
offered in our schools, and it aims at securing that for this
purpose suitable meals shall be available, just as much for
those whose parents are in a position to pay as for those
to whom food must be given free of cost. It is obvious
that the passing of this Act opens up possibilities of a most
beneficial nature, if its operation is handled with full circumspection
and on carefully thought-out lines by the local
authorities and voluntary agencies, to whom these great
responsibilities are entrusted by Parliament; since it furnishes
unrivalled opportunities to the earnest, yet wise,
social reformer for mitigating some of the deepest physical
injuries that beset the children of the rising generation, par-