Volume 1

Fit for the future : report of the Committee on Child Health Services / chairman, S.D.M. Court.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Child Health Services.
Date:
1976
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Fit for the future : report of the Committee on Child Health Services / chairman, S.D.M. Court. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    restricted as in the upstairs ward . . . it was not unusual for naked and half-naked limbless four year olds to sit on their little yellow plastic pots, tight together, in a row against the bare wall, for an hour or an hour and a half, whilst bathing routines went on above and around them. The going to bed routine for these little children started at 3.30 p.m.... because these small, mentally alert children had no opportunities to satisfy their normal craving for play, they inevitably derived bizarre play habits from their environment... .” Many handicapped children who live in hospital are vulnerable to various forms of deprivation which may eventually create additional handicaps for them . .. further intellectual retardation, social incompetence and deep- seated unhappiness. Their initial disadvantage is compounded by the provision we make or fail to make for them. Educational failure The connection between health and education is one of the most important aspects of paediatrics. Educational failure should be recognised early and requires precise diagnosis just as much as physical disease, for many difficulties at school could be anticipated before school begins. The connection between low birthweight, nutrition and the development of intelligence has been investigated. So also has the connection between attainment and the size of the family to which the child belongs. Yet in general our understanding of disorders of learning is still rudimentary and the problems of intellectual limitation, defective speech, inadequate reading ability, excessive clumsiness, disturbed behaviour, truancy, school phobia and delinquency create a formidable array of disability. These problems will yield only to the combined efforts of doctors, teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers and others. Yet we found a good deal of evidence that as yet services were not disposed so as to cooperate in the interests of the child. Non-accidental injury The failure of services becomes most stark and tragic when it contributes to the death of a child at the hands of those who should care for him. While we were working as a Committee the results were published of investigations into the deaths at the hands of their parents of six young children, among them Maria Colwell. They were the children whose names became known to the public. Many others died whose cases received no such publicity. The exact size of the problem has not yet been determined; figures quoted on a national basis are generally extrapolated from local studies. These suggest that more than 5,000 children are affected in this way every year of whom 1,000 will be seriously injured and nearly 100 die. The failure to prevent this suffering is of two kinds. Health, social and education services do not react well enough individually or collectively to signs of need; and too little is known and done about the reasons which cause individuals to lose control and injure their children. Such omissions and failures of insight by professionals must be remedied by a determined effort of those responsible for giving the services and for training new generations of doctors, teachers and social workers. The implications for society as a whole of “‘non-accidental injury” to 1]