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45
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
The Inner London Education Authority is responsible for the school health
service, but by virtue of an agreement required by Section 32 of the London Government
Act,1963, there is joint use by the Authority and the Borough Council of
professional staff premises and equipment. The Medical Officer of Health is the
Principal School Medical Officer of the Inner London Education Authority for the
area and responsible to that Authority for the day-to-day running of the service.
In this report some of the more detailed statistical information has been
omitted, but for those who are interested it can be found in the report of the
Medical Adviser to the Inner London Education Authority.
SCHOOL MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS
There were no major changes in the service during the year. Eleven
schools continued to participate in the "selective" examination of 7 yearolds,
and it was again noted that well over half (71%) of their children did
not need to be examined. This allowed the school doctors and nurses time to
look more carefully at those children picked out by the selection process.
It is safe to assume that in conformity with a growing body of expert opinion
in this country, the "selective" method will be used increasingly in the
future. However, not all schools lend themselves to this method, as its
success depends (at least in part), on the willingness of parents to complete
a fairly lengthy questionnaire on the health of their child and ensure it's
return to the school.
The total school population remained fairly static at 35,492, and in the
remaining schools in the Borough nearly 14,000 routine medical examinations
were carried out-in four age groups-i.e. all entrants in infant, junior
and secondary schools, and secondary school leavers. In addition, many
school children not falling in these precise age groups, were brought forward
for medical examination at the request of teaching staff, parent, care
committee worker or other agency. The numbers of such children are given
in the table below:-

These figures show a 15% increase over the previous year-reflecting, in
particular, a larger number of children referred for examination by teaching
staff and a rise in the number of children examined before a "school journey".