| AdminHistory | The extension of the boundaries of the city of Birmingham in 1911 and consequent enlargement of membership on the Education Committee, alongside the distribution of schools into six rather than three districts, was accompanied by the constitution of a new standing sub-committee, the Hygiene Sub-Committee. The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, had seen the introduction in 1908 of a system of medical inspection of children after admission to school, with the appointment of a Medical Officer and School Medical Inspectors, but it was not until the setting up of the Hygiene Sub-Committee in 1911 that provision was made for medical treatment.
The Hygiene Sub-Committee was appointed by the Education Committee in November 1911 with ‘executive powers as far as medical inspection and medical treatment (if any) are concerned, but with advisory powers only in regard to school buildings’. The sub-committee first met in December 1911 and Mrs George Cadbury was elected Chairman. The first treatment areas to be addressed were eyes and teeth. The Hygiene Sub-Committee recommended that the eye problems of children be treated by both the School Medical Officers and an Ophthalmic Surgeon. An Ophthalmic Surgeon was actually appointed in April 1912 to examine the eyes and prescribe spectacles for children sent to him by their schools.
A scheme for the treatment of teeth came into operation in 1913 initially for children between 6 and 8 years and a dental clinic was equipped in a former Handsworth Education Office building. The building was gradually converted into a school clinic for the treatment of tonsils and adenoids, minor ailments and the treatment of ringworm other than by X-ray. A central building for medical treatment was still required with facilities for ringworm treatment, and in October 1913 agreement was given for the building of a School Clinic in Great Charles. The number of clinics continued to expand and in 1931 the first Child Guidance Clinic for the treatment of problems such as nervousness, stammering and difficult behaviour in children was opened.
The Education Act, 1918 gave local authorities the power to set up nursery schools for children and a special Nursery Schools Sub-Committee reporting to the Hygiene Sub-Committee was set up in 1919 to consider the issues. The first nursery school to be established was in rooms rented at the Birmingham Women’s Settlement in Summer Lane. Responsibility for the Nursery Schools Sub-Committee was transferred from the Hygiene Sub-Committee to the Elementary Education Sub-Committee in February 1939.
The Education Act, 1944, Section 48 (3) maintained that ‘it shall be the duty of every Local Education Authority to make such arrangements for securing provision of free medical treatment for pupils in attendance at any school or county college maintained by them as are necessary for securing that comprehensive facilities for free medical treatment are available to them, either under this Act or otherwise’. All treatment consequently became free of charge whether given by the School Health Service or through the facilities which were to arrive with the establishment of the National Health Service during the late 1940s.
With the passing of the Children Act in 1948, some of the welfare responsibilities of the Special Schools Sub-Committee and its sub-sub-committees including the Erdington and Shenley Fields Cottage Homes, Shawbury Approved School (formerly Shustoke Industrial School) and Copeley Hill Hostel were transferred to the newly constituted Children’s Committee (see BCC/1/CT). With a slight reduction in the responsibilities of the Special Schools Sub-Committee (despite the additional work arising out of the management of the Monyhull Residential School and the three Hospital Schools transferred to the sub-committee under the National Health Service Act see BCC/1/BH/5/6) and the close relationship between the work of the Special Schools Services and the School Health Services the Education Committee decided to amalgamate the Hygiene Sub-Committee and the Special Schools Sub-Committee. A new standing sub-committee, the Special Services Sub-Committee was founded in October 1949. The Hygiene Sub-Committee last met in September 1949. |