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96
all contacts are investigated, and when any considerable number is involved
the aid of Mass Radiography is invoked.
The Medical Research Council's trials in B.C.G. with school leavers is
continuing, and an extension of the use of this prophylactic vaccination can
be envisaged in the near future.
The increased help given by the Child Guidance Clinic to the school
medical staff in the ascertainment of handicapped pupils has resulted in
the weeding out of a number of maladjusted children, and their placement in
appropriate residential schools or elsewhere has proved one of our biggest
tasks.
Discriminatory select-ion by school governing bodies against admission
of all but the most manageable type of child together with the high cost
of maintenance and surveillance by the Council's officers have led me to
ponder the need for placement on a regional basis. For it can never be
wholly satisfactory to rely on surveillance and report by officers of a
distant Local Education Authority or Children's Committee.
The Essex Education Authorities should pool their resources and
finances to solve the problem of placement of handicapped pupils, for the
expense involved by the present methods of dealing with such children is
unwarranted and insupportable.
The need also for additional 'special classes' in ordinary schools
for E.S.N. pupils has been demonstrated by more painstaking ascertainment
than has been possible hitherto. The desirability of retaining pupils
not so seriously retarded within the schools is generally acknowledged,
for such children often value the company of other scholars who live in
their neighbourhood and benefit also from the support of home life.
Reference must be made to the extension of the Church Road Clinic
designed to include two more dental surgeries. This additional accommodation
would enable us to employ another dental surgeon to reinforce
this greatly depleted service. Many hundreds of children await dental
treatment and only the most urgent cases can be dealt with by the
existing staff. Routine dental inspections in the schools cannot be
undertaken and evening sessional work will have to be resorted to in an
effort to deal with the outstanding work.
Years of neglect have resulted in the truly appalling 'dental state'
of our schoolchildren, for it is believed that three out of four schoolchildren
require dental treatment and the condition often will have
advanced to serious decay before the necessary measures can be undertaken.
But in spite of difficulties, staff shortages, and financial
stringency, a year of progress in the school health service has been
experienced. This would not have been possible without the support of the
Chairman and members of the Education Committee and the Chairman of the
Care and Welfare Committee whose valued constructive criticism and deep
interest in every aspect of the work was a constant stimulus to all the
officers.
I owe a great deal to Dr. D.E. Cullington whose penetrating insight
into the various problems which confronted us during the year played no
small part in the smooth running and efficiency of the school health
service. Our best wishes go to him for happiness and success in his
new post of Medical Officer of Health to the Borough of Barking.
May I conclude with sincere thanks to all those members of the Education
Committee whose energy and wisdom have given this borough education
services of the highest order, and express thanks and gratitude to the
Chief Education Officer, his staff and the Head Teachers of all schools, for
for their ready and willing co-operation at all times.