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87
Nursery Schools.
With a view to securing systematic health visiting of children
up to the age at which they enter school, and to the early detection
and treatment of all defects or diseases, the Minister of
Health and the President of the Board of Education, in an
Official Circular dated Dec. 5th last, requested local Education
Authorities and Maternity and Child Welfare Authorities to consider
the provision of Nursery Schools for children between 2
and 5 years old and the extension of the present arrangements of
health visiting and medical examination and treatment of children.
It was also suggested that in some areas Maternity and Child
Welfare Authorities may decide to supplement these arrangements
by the provision of Day Nurseries.
The systematic health supervision of the pre-school child
from the date when it is first able to "toddle" is a matter of
first importance. Many of the defects of children found on
medical examination as school entrants are acquired between the
years of 2 and 5. These defective physical conditions could, in
the majority of cases, be corrected if mothers would cease to
regard the period of an Infant Welfare Centre's usefulness to
be at an end as soon as the child began to "toddle."
The Circular suggests that the proposals outlined by the
respective Ministers are not to be regarded as the only method of
attacking the problem. There are no Nursery Schools in Camberwell,
but it is perhaps appropriate to state that the slow development
of the Nursery School movement by the Authority concerned
has been met by this Council by an alternative method to
secure systematic medical inspection of children under 5 years
by encouraging the establishment of special " Toddlers " Clinics
at. Infant Welfare Centres in the Borough. The first of these
clinics was started in December, 1927, and during last year three
other Centres have followed this example.
A return of the work of the special clinics is set out in the
table which appears on page 81.
Any further consideration of these special clinics will depend
on the success, after extended trial, of this effort to secure the
systematic medical inspection of "toddlers" and to the action
which may be taken by the Education Authority in London with
regard to the provision of Nursery Schools.
This Council has consequently adjourned for the time being
further consideration of the Official Circular.
Supply of Milk for Expectant and Nursing Mothers and for
Infants.
The Milk Applications Committee met regularly every week
throughout the vear to consider applications from necessitous