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69
SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
Report of the Principal School Dental Officer
The question of fluoridation of public water supplies was again considered by the Council during
the year and again turned down, this time by a very much larger majority. Questioning of parents, however,
at school inspections and at treatment sessions reveals that of those who know what fluoridation means, a
majority would welcome the adoption of this measure. It is pleasing to note that few children leave school
with an unhealthy mouth, but the number of fillings in the mouth of the average school leaver is still on the
increase. Emphasis must therefore continue to be on prevention and in this context dental health education is
being linked to a greater degree with school inspections when children and parents can be reached simultaneously.
CHILD GUIDANCE SERVICE
Prepared by Mr. C. Graham, b.sc., Chief Educational Psychologist
Organisation of the Service
At the end of the year the waiting lists were a little lower than at the beginning, 314 children to be
seen by one of the psychologists (compared with 340 at the end of 1968) and 94 to be seen by one of the
psychiatrists (compared with 116 at the end of 1968). This means that there is a waiting period before a
child's case is investigated, but this is probably about the same as found in Child Guidance Services in other
parts of the country. Naturally urgent cases are always given priority and these tend to be children where
reports are needed for the Juvenile Court or children excluded from school where reports are needed for school
placement purposes.
The Service continues to be organized geographically into the Kingsbury Child Guidance Centre in
Church Lane serving the Wembley area, and the Kilburn Child Guidance Centre in Brondesbury Villas serving
the Willesden area. The Educational Psychologists in the School Psychological Service deal with problems,
usually more of a learning nature, from the schools and the whole team in the Child Guidance Centres
deals with the more deep-seated emotional problems of children referred from any source.
Referrals
There were just 1,000 children referred during 1969 (compared with 919 in 1968), and this can be
subdivided as follows:—
Kingsbury Kilburn Total
School Psychological Service 111 518 629
Child Guidance Centres 170 201 371
Total 281 7l9 1,000
Clearly the main pressures come from school referrals from the Willesden side of the Borough.
With a Brent school population of 40,000, the referrals make up 2½% of the total school population.
This is not excessive when it is considered that the Service deals with any problem of an emotional or
learning nature.
As can be seen from Table 2, of the referrals to the Child Guidance Centres, about a third come
from medical sources, about a quarter from the schools and about a fifth from parents themselves.
Table 1 shows the usual preponderance of boys in the referrals, but the proportion is not now quite
as great as 2:1 as found in previous years. Altogether 270 children during the year received some form of
individual help for varying periods of time, sometimes as often as an hour twice a week, sometimes as infrequently
as half an hour once in two months. About half the number of children receiving regular help
were seen by one of the two psychiatrists, the remainder were seen largely by the psychotherapists. The
number of children seen regularly has increased greatly year by year viz:—
1965: 146 1967: 173 1969: 270
1966: 162 1968: 182
The same high proportion (62%) of the Child Guidance Centre referrals are for behaviour problems,
usually where the child makes life difficult for the teacher or parent. Naturally many of these require investigation
but the dual plea made in previous annual reports needs making again. First, there is little that
the Child Guidance Service has to offer if parents do not, or will not, see the problem and are not co-operative.
Secondly, the preponderance of this type of referral should not detract from the referring of the less difficult
but equally important type of child where withdrawn, sensitive, nervous and psychosomatic difficulties require
investigation.
The age distribution (Table 4) is much the same as previous years. It is the hope of the Child
Guidance personnel that children be referred at as early an age as possible. The 52 children referred at age
14+ present particular difficulties, and many of these were referred for the first time, but should have been
referred at an earlier stage.
Staff and Premises
The staffing position has been more settled in 1969. The total establishment is filled except for a few
sessions of psychotherapists.
Miss Villiers began as full-time P.S.W. during the latter part of the year, taking the place of Miss
Bardram who left in the earlier part of the year. Mrs Hutten and Miss Dickeson joined the Service as parttime
P.S.W's.
Miss Michaelides took the place of Mrs. Garner as a clerical assistant.