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MEDICAL INSPECTIONS
The main function of the School Health Service is to promote the
health and welfare of the school child in order that he may derive the
maximum benefit from the education provided. The basic "instrument"
used to achieve this end is the medical inspection of children with the
purpose of:-
(i) detecting actual defects present and,
(ii) eliciting signs indicative of developing defect which could
interfere with a child's educational progress.
Section 48 of the Education Act 1944 makes it the duty of a local
education authority to provide for the medical inspection, at appropriate
intervals, of pupils in attendance at any school maintained by them, and
the authority may require the parent of any pupil, in attendance at such
a school, to submit the pupil for medical inspection in accordance with
arrangements made by the authority. Although the Act thus provides a
legal obligation on the parent to submit the child for examination, the
parent is free, should he so desire, to refuse treatment.
Under the School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils' Regulations,
1953, a local education authority is free to experiment in the ages
at which periodic medical inspection shall be carried out, although a
minimum of three general medical inspections is prescribed.
During the year 1969, in Harrow the periodic inspections were carried
out as follows:-
(1) Entrants—on admission for the first time to school;
(2) Intermediates—during the first year of secondary school;
(3) Leavers—during last year at school.