HEALTH DEPARTMENT: SCHOOL HEALTH

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: MCC/HS/SH
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: HEALTH DEPARTMENT: SCHOOL HEALTH
Date(s)	: 1944-1965
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 3.43 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: MCC | Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1907 the Local Education Authorities were made responsible for providing medical inspection; however, it was not until the Education Act 1918 that the majority of Local Education Authorities established school clinics. The Health Department of the MCC was responsible for the medical supervision of children in secondary and technical schools throughout the County, and for elementary schools where the County was the authority. The service was carried out by a staff of assistant school medical officers and trained nurses who combined the care and treatment of school children with their duties as assistant medical officers and health visitors under the Council's maternity and child welfare scheme.

Children attending elementary schools underwent four routine medical inspections at the ages of five, seven, ten and when they left school. In secondary school medical checks were performed annually. Clinics were established for the treatment of minor ailments and was given free of charge. Facilities also existed for dental and ophthalmic treatment. From 1942 orthopaedic defects were treated with assistance from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore.

Blind, deaf, physically disabled or epileptic children were sent to special schools. The Talbot Special School in Southall was the MCC day school for mentally defective children. A Child Guidance Clinic was established at Harrow. Two full time psychiatrists were appointed, working under the general supervision of the County Medical Officer.

A nominal charge was made for attendance at clinics and courses of treatment, although this was lifted altogether in cases of hardship. Parents were asked to make what contribution they could afford towards the cost of treatment and of surgical appliances, spectacles, braces and so on.

The Milk in Schools scheme allowed each child to obtain in school a third of a pint of milk daily at a cost of a halfpenny. The Second World War led to a great expansion in the school meals service. By 1943 the number of school children receiving school meals was 36,575.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Middlesex County Council Health Department relating to school health, 1944-1965, including general files relating to: juvenile delinquency, physically disabled pupils, special schools, blind and partially sighted pupils, education of the deaf, residential schools, epilepsy, mentally deficient pupils, medical inspections, ear, nose and throat clinics, dermatological survey of schoolchildren, provision of medicines and vitamins, child guidance centres, holiday camps for diabetic and epileptic children, speech therapy, first aid equipment, accidents, employment of children, 'latch-key' children, school canteens, head lice, ophthalmic treatment, colour vision testing, orthopaedic treatment, physiotherapy, surveys of the health and development of children, precautions against tuberculosis, vaccination, maladjusted children, dyslexia, control of infectious diseases and school meals.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

This material is arranged in one series: MCC/HS/SH: General.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent authority, the Middlesex County Council, and with successor authorities.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the Middlesex County Council please see Middlesex by Sir Clifford Radcliffe (2 editions, 1939 and 1953), LMA Library reference 97.09 MID; and The County Council of the Administrative County of Middlesex: 76 years of local government, 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1965, by Middlesex County Council (1965), LMA library reference S97.09 MID.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009