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7
According to the Government's arrangements, evacuated children are entitled to receive the
same school medical services as are provided by the reception area for its own children. In the
experience of Willesden, the parents and teachers of the evacuated children clamour for the services
to which they have been accustomed in their own area, and the past months have been marked by a
succession of letters, visits by parents and telephone calls to the Health Department requesting that
the children should be so treated. A number have been brought back to Willesden for treatment
including the treatment of such simple conditions as cleansing and scabies.
UNCLEANLINESS IN EVACUATED CHILDREN.
The normal incidence of nits and vermin amongst public elementary school children in
Willesden is approximately 4 per cent. It must be recognised that not yet has the time arrived
when every mother can be depended on of her own free will to keep her children free from nits and
vermin but it is a fact that the defaulting families are mostly known to the Health Department and
by unremitting supervision the condition of these families and the harm they do can be kept within
limits. After the lapse of supervision during the summer holidays it has invariably been found that
the incidence of nits and vermin is considerably higher. Evacuation came at the end of the long
summer holiday and it is therefore likely that a proportion of the children entered the reception area
with their hair in a more or less nitty condition. Normally their mothers would have kept this
condition within bounds and after the first cleanliness inspections of the autumn term usually held
promptly after the reopening of the Schools the children would have been restored quickly to their
wonted condition of cleanliness. The hostesses in the reception areas were, however, probably
unaware of the urgent need for inspection and cleansing of their charges' hair. Some may have been
unfamiliar with such procedure, others unwilling or unable to shoulder forthwith all the extra tasks
thrust upon them. In such circumstances it would only be a matter of days or at most a week or two
for conditions to become such as to cause the outcry of last autumn with which we are all familiar
and which caused grossly unfair and incorrect reflections to be cast on the School Health Service.
The results of cleanliness inspections made by the Willesden Council's Health Visitors in
reception areas from 28th September, 1939, to 20th April, 1940, were as follows :—

Findings of Cleanliness Inspections in Willesden.—Cleanliness inspections were carried
out in the schools on 408 occasions during the year 1939, the average number of visits paid to each
school by the Health Visitor being 12. The total number of examinations and re-examinations
made during the year was 36,787. It should be noted that the routine cleanliness inspections were
discontinued as from the end of the summer term 1939.
This is highly important work. In 1914, when it was first begun, the percentage of nitty or
verminous children in the schools was as high as 20. In those days a child was not called nitty or
verminous except there were many nits on the hair. In 1931, when a child with only a few nits was
placed in this category, the percentage of nitty or verminous children in the schools had dropped to 3.6.
It will therefore be noted that enormous improvement had been effected, far greater actually than
the figures show. In 1939, the percentage was 3.8.
The first reverse in the steady decline which had been maintained since 1920 was in 1933.
when the percentage rose to 4.1 after having fallen to 3.6 in 1931 and 1932.

Note.—Routine cleanliness inspections were discontinued from the end of the summer term,
1939.