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children for special schools. These 'certifying officers' would have before them reports
from the Council's lay officers on the family and home circumstances, the school
medical records and school reports from the head masters. They would personally
see the children with the parents and the teachers as they did in considering special
school cases. It was considered that any such arrangements for the more systematic
sifting of children for reference to child guidance clinics would probably bring to
notice a number of children who had presented problems to their teachers on account
of some minor abnormality in behaviour or educability. Some such cases already came
to light in the examination of children for special schools. Other cases would merely
constitute problems of simple training or discipline. The kind of guidance required for
these cases was, in the opinion of the Feversham Committee, part and parcel of the
statutory education system and a matter for an educational psychologist. The Feversham
Committee recommended that every local education authority should, when possible,
appoint a Psychologist to advise them on their education programme and to examine
and advise on the treatment of backward children and those presenting difficult
problems of behaviour and education, referring suitable cases to a child guidance clinic
for further advice and treatment.
As early as 1913 the Council had appointed (half-time) to the Education Officer's
Department a leading psychologist (Dr., afterwards Professor Sir Cyril Burt). Dr. Burt
divided his time between reporting on individual delinquent and problem children
referred to him (mainly from the juvenile courts) and in advising teachers about backward
children. He stimulated great interest in the London Education Service in the
testing of children's intelligence and educable capacity. His memoranda on his work
in this matter were published by the Council. When Dr. Burt resigned in 1932, the
Council did not fill his post and temporary arrangements were made for continuing
the psychological work within the Education Inspectorate.
The School Medical Officer and the Education Officer suggested in 1943 that it
would be an advantage if the Council could take a more active part in shaping the
sphere of psychology in statutory educational provision. They suggested that, as a
first step to organising better the Council's resources in the matter, there should be set
up, in each of the administrative divisions of the Education Officer's Department, a
small standing conference to meet as required. These conferences (known as Problem
Cases Conferences) began work in the divisions in March, 1944. They meet once a
month, or more frequently, and consist of the District Inspector of Schools, the
Divisional Medical Officer, the District Organiser (or an assistant organiser) of Children's
Care Work, and the Divisional (Education) Officer or his representative. The educational
psychologists also attend whenever possible.
Teachers and officers are free to refer to this conference or to consult them personally
on children who present problems from the educational or social angle, whether or
not medical considerations appear to be involved. Some may be children whose need of
special schools is in question, whilst others may be children from bad homes who are
on the way to becoming in need of statutory care. Such conferences have the merit of
team work, the importance of which had been so much stressed in child guidance clinics,
and they have become the means of co-ordinating much of the special children's case
work formerly diffused in different sections of the Council's education administration.
Heads of schools are kept informed of decisions taken by the conferences. The case
conferences sometimes forward to the School Medical Officer those cases which seem
prima facie to qualify for special schools or to need expert child guidance or other
specialist medical treatment. Sometimes, the conference itself is able to dispose of
problems by advice, and, where necessary, by enlisting the appropriate official help.
The setting-up of these conferences, in March, 1944, was approved in principle
as an experiment, to be reviewed after one year's work. The first year's work was
seriously interrupted by evacuation on account of flying-bomb and rocket attacks on
London. In July, 1948, in considering the reports on this interrupted year's work, the
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