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In 1955 the Council decided to establish remedial classes for backward children. The
classes were intended for children of average ability whose backwardness was particularly
recalcitrant, who showed no signs of improvement under ordinary school conditions.
The children were to be selected by the educational psychologists, and were not to be
'ascertained,' although they were to be specially medically examined to exclude the
possibility of physical reasons for their educational retardation.
Nearly twenty years after the Inspectors' report, and forty years after Burt's work, the
Education Committee gave consideration to a third report on backwardness, prepared by
the Council's educational psychologists. This report, although using different criteria from
the earlier ones, confirmed the nature and extent of the problem, and suggested that the
incidence of backwardness was a little higher than it had been in pre-war years. It estimated
that there were 24,000 pupils of junior school age who would benefit from special help,
apart from those in secondary schools. The report suggested that the Council should
establish a Remedial Education centre, at which teachers could attend, on a part-time
basis, courses in the teaching of backward children; that specially selected teachers should
be trained to administer, to those children who present educational problems in their own
schools, group tests of intelligence and attainment, under the supervision of the Council's
educational psychologists, and that such an establishment would provide a centre to
which teachers could turn for advice on individual problems.
These recommendations were accepted by the Council, and the centre was opened in
1957 with two concurrent courses of 40 teachers attending one day a week for 10 weeks.
The work occupies the time of the equivalent of two full-time educational psychologists.
(h) Summary of the present position and future outlook—The schools' psychological
service is primarily concerned with the promotion and maintenance of mental health among
school children generally. The core of its work is essentially the assessment of the needs
and difficulties of individual children. The close liaison between the Council's psychologists
enables them to detect children early who need child guidance treatment or some other
form of specialized help. Further, it enables them to advise teachers on how to deal with
children who have behaviour problems and/or learning difficulties. Educational psychologists
are also responsible for the dissemination of knowledge about recent research into
matters concerning the mental health of children. This is done partly through the organisation
of teachers' courses, and lectures to parent-teacher associations, care committee
workers, etc., and partly through discussions about individual cases.
In London the varied and extensive provision for special educational treatment provides
a fruitful field of work for educational psychologists. Individual testing of handicapped
children provides not only data upon which to base their educational programme but also
information about the general problems of special groups of handicapped pupils. Certain
psychologists are already specializing in the testing of blind, deaf and physically handicapped
children. It is hoped gradually to extend this specialisation to all groups of handicapped
pupils.
V—Juvenile delinquency, remand homes and approved schools
(a) Historical notes—The Children Act, 1908, which established the Juvenile Courts,
made it compulsory for the Council to arrange for all children taken into custody within
the metropolitan area to be accommodated in remand homes, a duty previously vested
in the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The remand homes in the possession of that authority
were transferred to the Council in April, 1911 and placed under the direction of the Education
Committee. In 1949, following upon the Children Act of 1948, they became the
immediate responsibility of the Children's Committee.
From the beginning the Council had appointed a medical officer to the remand homes,
although in the earliest days his reports to the Courts were confined to the question of a
child's medical fitness for committal to an 'industrial' school.
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