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The growth of British Restaurants also made it possible,
through that Service, to provide children, from the latter
part.of the year, with meals both free and on payment, *
during, school holidays.
Provision of Milk.
The provision of milk, both free and on payment, continued
throughout the year in spite of the difficulty caused by lack
of bottles, which resulted from the "Blitz", In December
the Education Committee, in accordance with suggestions
made in Board of Education Circular 1569, introduced a much
enlarged provision of help and equipment, and by the end of
the year the proportion of children taking milk in school
had reached 80 per cent.
Uncleanliness.
Special attention has been given by the School Nurses,
both at the clinics and at the school cleanliness inspections,
to the detection, prevention and treatment of uncleanliness
and verminous conditions. The school nurses visit the
schools at frequent intervals and the children are submitted
to a thorough examination to detect any sign of uncleanliness.
Those children discov red to be in a verminous condition are
followed up by the School Nurses both at school and in their
homes. In those cases, where, owing to special circumstances,
there was a difficulty in the cleansing being effected at
homo, the children were cleansed by the School Nurses at the
Clinics, and in this connection 140 children were cleansed
during the year.
Every child evacuated during the year was thoroughly
examined with regard to his or her state of cleanliness
and every precaution was taken to ensure that at the time
of evacuation each child was in a clean condition. Those
children found to be in a verminous condition were either
cleancd by their parents or by the school nurses, and again
inspected prior to their departure.
Table V (-Appendix) shows the number of children found to
be unclean and the action taken.
Scabies.
During 1941, efforts were redoubled to get as many as
possible of the infested persons diagnosed and treated. ±.
valuable contribution, resulting from the Board of Education
Circular, 1575 led to the co-operation of Head Teachers, by
a daily inspection of hands and wrists of all children, with
direct reference to the School Medic .1 Officers of all doubtful
cas.es. In each case diagnosed, home visits followed, and
pressure was brought to bear on other members of the family
to come for treatment at the various centres. The difficulty
of contacting members working away from home has recently been
diminished by the employer allowing the worker to attend for
diagnosis and treatment.
Thus, in considering the relative figures as between 1940
and 1941, the fact must be remembered that there are not only
fewer missed cases in school children, but more treatment of
their relatives, as well as a considerably increased local
population resulting from the steady return to the London
area.