[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth.

  • Portsmouth (England). Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/48 (page 29)
    special schools (i.e. Futcher or Cliffdale), or having home tuition, together with the number on the waiting list for residential special schools :— In Residential Special or In Day Special Schools or Having Home On waiting list for Hosp. Schools Classes Teaching Spec. School Res. Day Blind 7 — — — — Partially sighted 4 — — 1 — Deaf 13 — — 1 — Partially deaf 5 — — 3 — Delicate 3 53 — 1 1 Physically handicapped ... 12 31 8 — 1 Educationally sub-normal 25 235 —. 1 30 Maladjusted 14 — — 2 — Epileptic . 1 — — — — 31 children were receiving education whilst inmates at local hospitals, and 11 at the Cerebral Palsy Unit. In addition, 366 children with speech defects were treated by the speech therapists, as detailed in their reports. CHILD GUIDANCE SERVICE The Educational Psychologist, Dr. C. H. Jackson, reports as follows “This is the fourth annual report of the Authority’s Child Guidance Service. A statistical analysis of referrals is given in the appendix. The figures given concern only children referred during the year 1957 unless otherwise stated. Tables of data follow closely in form those given in previous reports to facilitate comparison. Considerable caution should, however, be exercised in drawing inferences from the tables on account of the relatively small number of children in the various categories. It will be seen that 346 children were referred during the year, almost exactly the same number as in the previous year. Of these, 308 were seen during the year, so that 38 were waiting initial interview at the end of the year. This is a much more satisfactory position than in the previous year, when 95 pupils were still on the waiting list at the end of the year. It will also be observed that the cases of 289 children were being currently dealt with at the end of the year, compared with 297 last year. In this respect, the position is rather better than it has been for the past two years. The improvement is due partially to the efforts of the remedial teachers, who have enabled many children to make such substantial progress that cases have been successfully terminated during the year. The appointment of a second remedial teacher has, however, been the main cause of the present satisfactory position. The establishment created last year was filled on 1st September by secondment of Mr. J. Freeland from Paulsgrove Primary Boys’ School. This enabled some re-organisation of work and a vigorous drive to reduce the swollen waiting list. The considerable success achieved justifies a confident expectation that by the end of January, 1958, all children referred during 1957 will have been given an initial interview. This is an important step towards the desirable ideal that referrals should be dealt with as and when referred. In view of the large case load necessarily carried forward from one year to another, this is,, however, unlikely to be achieved until additional psychological help is available. The number of visitors continues to increase every year, and during 1957 more teachers and student teachers were welcomed than ever before, both