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149
Further, there is a new approach to this often purely clinical
examination, namely an attempt to see the child in the home and
school environment because a handicap or defect can have a
different meaning to a Doctor, a Parent or a Child.
Education (Handicapped Children) Act 1970 Chapter 52—
Amendment
It was long ago recognised that the exclusion of children
from formal education (Education Act 1944) was too final an
action and could be, to all practical purposes, irrevocable.
Subsequent legislation made for a more liberal interpretation
and enabled all who were concerned in the education of a child
to make a recommendation for exclusion from the school system
under the term of "unsuitable for education," with much less
apprehension for the child's future in the knowledge that a subsequent
assessment could reverse the decision. During these years
more and more evidence has accumulated which high-lighted two
points (1) that all children could be educated—of course to varying
extent, and (2) that such education could not be given too
soon. The second of these statements was easily understandable
and, in fact, taken for granted in the case of the blind child and,
later, also in the case of the deaf child.
1971, however, will be especially remembered in any caring
community for, on April 1st, the amendment came into force
in which educational provision must be made for all children.
Some of them, tragically, are severely handicapped and the best
ways of teaching them are still unknown—much work, time and
money must be given to them so that the many problems they
present to parents and teachers may be resolved as speedily as
possible.
As is mentioned in the report of the Education Psychological
Service simple absorption is not enough—in fact the danger of
their number, being small, becoming lost and unidentified in the
total school population, must ever be borne in mind. The majority
of these children will continue to attend Woodbrook which now
becomes recognised as a day special school; the remainder attend
special classes at ordinary schools but receive additional and
more frequent medical supervision, so that constant assessment of
their needs and progress may be made.
The Phoenix Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy
I am grateful to Dr. C. H. Upjohn, Consultant Paediatrician,
Farnborough Hospital, for the following report: —
The work in the Phoenix Centre has continued the same as
in the previous year with only a slight variation in the number
of children attending, now 31, and there has been no change in