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General
Ascertainment, special education and care of handicapped pupils
From small beginnings the facilities for handicapped children have been improved
during the years. Just before the last war the children for whom special education had
to be provided were those who were blind, epileptic, deaf or defective, that is, either
mentally or physically defective.
The present law relating to the education of handicapped children is contained
mainly in the Education Act, 1944, and in the Handicapped Pupils and School Health
Service Regulations, 1953, since made thereunder, in which it was determined that the
handicaps requiring special educational treatment, were to be blind, partially sighted,
deaf, partially deaf, educationally sub-normal, epileptic, maladjusted, physically handicapped,
pupils suffering from speech defect, and delicate. In London there already
existed special arrangements for children in all these categories except the maladjusted.
Examinations under Section 34 of the Education Act 1944 are in the main arranged
divisionally for children considered to be educationally sub-normal, physically handicapped
or delicate, and at County Hall for children thought to be blind, partially sighted,
deaf, partially deaf or epileptic. Examinations are also carried out with a view to recommending
special educational treatment for children suffering from speech defects,
diabetes and maladjustment.
Consultants advise the Principal School Medical Officer on ophthalmology, ear,
nose and throat conditions, orthopaedics, child psychiatry and juvenile rheumatism.
Education in
hospital or at
home
Before the National Health Service came into operaton, the Council had seven
schools in its own hospitals, and the total roll was over a thousand children. The children
in these hospital schools suffered from pulmonary and non-pulmonary tuberculosis,
juvenile rheumatism, orthopaedic defects, chronic skin disease, and diseases of the eyes
and ears. All except one of these schools were in hospitals outside the County of London,
and after the Regional Hospital Boards were set up, the out-county schools were handed
over in 1949 to the appropriate local education authorities. Since then, new schools
have been opened in a number of London hospitals. The aim of these schools is to reduce
to the minimum the interruption to the children's education caused by their stay in
hospital. There are now five schools, including the one school not transferred in 1949,
and the average total roll in the year 1953-54 was 319.
Section 56 of the Education Act, 1944, gave local education authorities power to
provide education otherwise than at school and, as a result, it has been possible to give
instruction to individual pupils and small groups of children in hospitals where the
numbers do not justify the establishment of a school. Under the same section it is also
possible to provide tuition for severely handicapped children who cannot leave their
own homes. This tuition can be provided up to the age of 18, and the type of tuition
varies in each individual case. For older children some vocational training may be given
and some have been enabled to obtain the General Certificate of Education.
Blind
children
The first school for the education of the blind in England was established in Liverpool
in 1791. Before that date, the provision which had been made for the blind had been in
the nature of care rather than of instruction, as the names of the oldest schools—
'asylums'—indicated. The school at Liverpool was soon followed by two other
institutions, and many more were established during the first half of the nineteenth
century. The teaching given in these schools during the first part of the century was
hampered by the fact that as yet no embossed type had been generally adopted ; the
different institutions sponsored different types and, as a result, books were limited in
number and costly. Nevertheless, these institutions did fine pioneer work. In 1829 Louis
Braille devised the six-point system which bears his name and made both reading and
writing possible for the blind, and which eventually made its way into every blind
school and institution in England. The British and Foreign Blind Association (now the
Royal National Institute for the Blind) was founded in 1868.
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