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Furthermore, under Section 18 of the Act mentioned, no child shall be employed
to lift, carry, or move anything so heavy as likely to cause injury to him. Employment
of children in West Ham is restricted to the delivery of newspapers, milk or bread.
Occasionally a girl is examined In connection with paper delivery. The medical officer
carrying out the examination gives a certificate on the condition of the child at the
time of the examination and it is to the effect that the employment will not be
prejudicial to the health or physical development of the child and will not render him
unfit to obtain proper benefit from his education. In practice children from all types
of school -grammar, technical, modern and special (educationally sub-normal) are
examined in this way. In the case of the special school child it is the higher grade
child who is presented for examination. • In practice over the years it is found that
there are ordinarily very few children indeed who are fit to go to school but are not
fit to undertake the one hour's employment on schooldays which is allowed by the byelaws
of the Council. It is very rarely that a child is found unfit.
Some people regard the part-time employment of children as undesirable on medical
grounds. Some years ago a Home Office Committee, in the course of an enquiry into the
hours of employment of young persons, sought the opinion of the British Medical Association.
In order to advise it, the Association set up a Committee, which reported that, "The
evidence before the Committee does not suggest that part-time employment is injurious to
the health or prejudicial to the education of young persons except in the case of grammar
schools .... where it may interfere seriously with school work and, therefore, should be
prohibited. Part-time employment may even be beneficial in that it encourages a sense
of responsibility and healthy independence."
The number submitted for examination since 1949 fras progressively declined, the
number In that year being 229, and for 1956, 64. The number of certificates granted for
girls to participate In singing and dancing under the Entertainments Rules remained fairly
constant up to 1955, when the number was 52. This year the number dropped to 16. Regarding
the employment of children in theatrical work, the Committee already mentioned reported
that, "Although all express some doubts about the desirability at times, none recalled any
ill effects."
THE SCHOOL LEAVER AND EMPLOYMENT
UNSUITABILITY FOR CERTAIN OCCUPATIONS
The School Health and the Youth Employment Service work closely together
during the last two years of the child1s school life and one of the last duties which the
former service does for the child on leaving school Is to give the Youth Employment Officer
an indication of the child's fitness for employment. The school medical officer, at the
last inspection of the child at 14 plus, makes out a general school-leaving report
indicating appropriate unsuitabilities for employment.
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