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85
To the Chairman and Members of the Welfare Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
School Health Service.
The School Health Service has functioned normally throughout
1953 with no additional service added, and no service abandoned.
It tends to run on routine, which may be taken as a bad sign, for
static services are apt to deteriorate. I can. however, see no signs
of deterioration, rather is there an increased effort of professional
and non-professional staff to cope with the ever increasing number
of children to be dealt with. The school population in 1953 was
over 11,000, of whom 2,216 were in independent schools. There
has been no additional staff to deal with these increases.
This, my twenty-ninth Annual Report, gives the details of each
branch of the School Health Service and there are special reports
from each of the specialised officers. Included in the report is a
full report of the Advisers of Physical Education.
The School Health Service is now the only medical service for
which the Local Authority (as an Excepted District) is responsible.
This day to day administrative contact with the child and its parent
is the basic reason why the service is so successful and so helpful
in Bromley. It expresses in practice what is meant by a Delegated
function, a principle which could well apply to other Health
Services in Bromley to the advantage of the ratepayers.
It is perhaps opportune that I should remind you of some of
the successes of the School Health Service during the past 29 years.
I do not claim that these successes are due to my efforts, for I have
been merely the head of a loyal and efficient staff, professional and
clerical, who have so ably carried out the instructions and wishes
of the Committee members. Some of these Committee members
are with us still, but some, like Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Lindsey Bell,
have died during my years of office. There is a tendency to forget
their good work.
The School Health Service was founded on the principle that
if you improved the health of the school child, you would not only
improve its physique, but you would give protection against
infectious disease, and would control the killing diseases of childhood.
In 29 years, the Committee has seen these things happen.
The child has increased in average weight and height. Diphtheria
has disappeared from the yearly returns. Scarlet Fever is no longer
a serious disease, and the common infectious diseases have lost
their virulence and, except in some of the virus diseases such as
Poliomyelitis, have almost ceased to cause anxiety. In the early
1920's no less than 14% of all deaths occurred under 15 years of
age—to-day the percentage has fallen to less than 3%. These are
merely the major successes—there are so many others, not the least
of which is the greater attendance at school. It would, however,