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Education Committee whose Chairman's (or Vice-Chairman's) signature indicates the
local education authority's formal sanction for the notice to be issued to the parent.
This legal duplication of the notice to the parent does not appear to safeguard the child,
parent or the local education authority's officers.
Examination
The examination is more thorough than was the case under the earlier Act. The
regulations issued under the Education Act, 1944 rule that all medical officers must be
approved by the Ministry of Education for the purpose and it is further required that
they must have undergone specified training and had experience beforehand.* In London
the training regarded as a minimum for this purpose is that which would be regarded
as necessary for a qualifying diploma, but a medical officer would only be regarded as
fit to undertake this work with a further period of additional observation and practical
experience after the training course. For this purpose medical officers whenever possible
are initially employed under the personal supervision of the principal medical officer
responsible for this work throughout the county.
Notwithstanding any physical or sensory defects apparent from the records which
might account for or complicate the alleged intellectual failure, the examining medical
officer must satisfy himself personally on this point. The form of examination is
prescribed in Ministry of Education Form 2 H.P. An accurate assessment of the
intellectual state must be made by detailed psychometric examination using a
universally accepted system of testing, usually the Terman and Merrill revision of the
Stanford Binet. This—recorded on Part II of the form—may be carried out by an
educational psychologist instead of the medical officer responsible for the remainder
of the examination, although it is obviously better both clinically and legally for the
entire examination to be carried out where practicable by one examiner at one time.
The examining medical officer must also investigate the child psychiatrically to be sure
that there is no emotional orpsychotic abnormality which might indicate a school for
maladjusted children or even deeper psychiatric investigation or treatment. The result
is recorded on Form 2 H.P., proper completion of which demands answers in every
sphere of examination and thus eliminates the possibility of inadequate investigation.
Form 2 H.P. provides for three alternative conclusions about the child examined.
He may be (1) not educationally subnormal and fit for normal education,
(2) educationally subnormal but capable of receiving education at
school, or
(3) unfit for education in any school and suitable for report to the local
health authority as ineducable.
The examining medical officer, if his examination reveals a condition which
justifies it, may recommend that a decision be deferred until after further inquiry or
treatment.
The Act provides that the local education authority must give the parent notice of the
result of the examination and of any action proposed. For this reason the medical
officer should not tell the parent what he finds or intends to recommend, as it is for the
local education authority to decide what is to be done on the medical officer's advice. For
a medical officer, however, not to discuss the mental condition of the child with an interested
and often anxious parent would be embarrassing and might well antagonise the latter
whilst it is difficult in any case to see what would be gained. In London it is considered
that the legal position is adequately safeguarded if the examining medical officer uses
his discretion in discussing the child's condition, providing he makes it clear that he
cannot anticipate the recommendation that the principal school medical officer will
make and that the local education authority will decide the action to be taken as a result.
Subsequent action by the local education authority depends on the recommendation
of the principal school medical officer. In the first case the child remains at school
and no notification to the parent is necessary. The last case involves commencing the
* S.R. & O. 1945 No. 1076. Regulations 52 and 53.