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In 1929 the Council recognised the East London Child Guidance Clinic opened by
the Jewish Health Organisation and in 1931 the children's clinic for out-patients at the
Council's own Maudsley Hospital was recognised by the Education Committee.
In 1932 the three years' experimental period was completed but the Education
Committee postponed the question of paying grant to the Child Guidance Council or
to the clinic and deferred their review of the position of child guidance in relation to the
Council's educational and medical services until they could have before them reports
on the work done at the East London and Maudsley Clinics as well as at the Canonbury
Clinic. The Commonwealth Fund continued to finance the movement and indeed
continued to do so on a generous, but diminishing scale, until the outbreak of war.
In 1933 the Board of Education informed local authorities that the financial position
did not permit of any payments of grants in respect of child guidance at that time.
In July, 1933, the Education Committee entered into an arrangement with the
Director of the London Child Guidance Clinic (Canonbury) for the psychological
examination of children and young persons in the remand home and for the supply of
special reports required by the juvenile courts. This arrangement was not regarded
specifically as a 'child guidance' service. (It was not being done under the Education
Act.) Payment was sanctioned at the rate of £300 a year and this was later increased to
£400 a year.
In 1934 three more clinics were recognised by the Council, viz., Tavistock Clinic
(Institute of Medical Psychology), West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases and North
Western Child Guidance Clinic and in 1936 two further clinics were recognised, viz.,
The Institute of Child Psychology and the Department of Psychological Medicine,
Guy's Hospital. The last clinic to be recognised by the Council was the Creighton House
Child Guidance Clinic in 1938.
In 1936 the Education Committee had the first real opportunity of reviewing the
child guidance movement in London in the light of the work being done at Maudsley
Hospital and also at six recognised voluntary clinics. In the course of a long report the
Special Services Sub-Committee stated:
'We are of opinion that, in a limited number of cases, a great deal of good is done
by the special methods of investigation and treatment known as child guidance we think, however, that there are undoubtedly instances where an accurate diagnosis
of the root of the trouble and a recommendation for treatment could have been
reached without the elaborate technique of child guidance. We think, however,
that for selected cases, child guidance is a useful and beneficial part of a school medical
service. In certain cases, child guidance treatment given in time may often prevent the
appearance of a child in a juvenile court.'
Until 1936 the Council had not committed itself to any monetary grant in aid of
child guidance treatment under the Education Acts. In that year, however, it received
applications for financial assistance from the London Clinic (Canonbury) and from
the Institute of Child Psychology. The Committee decided to recommend a grant for
one year of £400 to the London Clinic in recognition of its services and also, in view of
the fact that it was proposed to terminate the arrangement, to pay £400 a year for the
special examinations at the remand home. No grant to any other child guidance clinic
was sanctioned that year.
In the years 1937, 1938 and 1939 the grant of £400 to the Canonbury Clinic was
continued and small grants were made to five other clinics. These grants could not be
regarded as anything more than tokens of the Council's formal recognition of the
clinics as school treatment centres.
It will be apparent that whilst the Council co-operated with the Child Guidance
Council from the inception of the movement, its policy up to 1939 was marked by
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