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child and such case conferences attended for example by the probation service, the hospital medical
social worker, the consultant paediatricians, or psychiatrist, the family doctor, were held on four
occasions.
Since the developmental screening of all children is a relatively new concept a considerable
amount of in-service training has been required to equip the professional staff with the necessary
skills. This has been particularly important with the improvement in the medical and nursing staffing
situation and a comprehensive training programme for both doctors and nurses has been prepared.
Two medical officers undertook training for assessment of mentally retarded children, one the course
for assessment of babies and young children and one a six week course in developmental paediatrics.
Induction training sessions were arranged for all new doctors joining the service during their first
month. Nevertheless a great need for practical demonstrations rather than theoretical training was
expressed, and in order to satisfy this a special training day was held on Saturday 4th March 1972.
Eminent specialists in this field including Dr. Dorothy Egan, Dr. Peter Robson and Dr. Pamela
Zinkin attended. Not only were talks given but practical application on normal and handicapped
children added to the benefits of the day. It was fortunate to have Mr. Romano, a consultant ophthalmologist
at Hillingdon Hospital speaking on the examination of young children for eye conditions.
It is pleasing to report that observation in the child health centres subsequent to the course has
confirmed that the new training is being applied in practice. In addition a number of courses were
held during the year for nursing staff and also for medical officers in connection with the screening
of hearing and vision in young children. The object of these training courses is to provide a universal
standard of testing throughout the Borough, and then, by means of regular review, to ensure that
the necessary standards are maintained.
In October 1972 one of the full-time medical officers commenced a course at the Institute of
Child Health in London for an academic year in connection with the advanced assessment of
handicapped children.
Handicapped Children in Day Nurseries
As an advisory service to the Social Services Department, medical officers continue to visit
the day nurseries periodically in order to examine the children and to assess the progress of handicapped
children who are placed there. A principal medical officer is also available for consultation
and advice and visits the nurseries to carry out more detailed assessments on the handicapped
children. During the year 19 routine visits were made by medical officers.
Since the education department assumed responsibility for the education and training of all
handicapped children including mentally handicapped the costs of all handicapped children in the
nurseries are borne by the education department. The table below gives some detail of these children.
Category (handicap) Number
Deaf or partially hearing 4
Delicate 2
Mentally Handicapped 3
Speech defect 3
Epileptic 1
Physically handicapped 1
Co-ordination and Co-operation
The child health services provided by the department do not exist in isolation but are organised
in conjunction with those provided by local hospitals and by family doctors. Efforts continue to be
made to promote closer co-ordination and co-operation between these three separate parts of the
service which will continue in the reorganised structure after 1974. The assistance of hospital
specialist staff in training medical officers in these techniques of developmental paediatrics has
already been mentioned, and the provision of information about children diagnosed or treated in
hospital is gradually becoming easier to obtain. These are significant advances and are complemented
by the increasing readiness of family doctors to seek the specialist help which the department
can provide in respect of children with particular handicapping problems.
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