View report page

table on page 58
No hospital special schools are provided
at hospitals within the borough but arrangements
are made for children to have tuition
in the wards of West Middlesex and Ashford
hospitals.
Children found unsuitable for education at
school
No formal decisions were recorded under
section 57 of the Education Act, 1944 neither
were any reviews conducted nor any decisions
cancel led.
Nine children, however, were dealt with
informally after being found unsuitable for
education in school.
Medical and dental inspection and treatment
of children excluded from school as unsuitable
The medical and dental facilities are available
to the severely sub-normal children attending
the two junior training schools in the same
way as for those attending ordinary schools.
A physiotherapist attends each school twice
a week to give treatment to those children
in the special care units who additionally
have severe physical handicaps, principally
cerebral palsy. It has been possible to
arrange for speech therapy at both junior
training schools for the treatment of selected
cases and to enable the staff to be
instructed in the constant use of speech
therapy techniques.
Social Workers' Report
Mrs C L Wisdom AIMSW and Mrs J Harding
B Sc (Soc), report as follows:-
We explained in our report for our first year
1967/68 how we were assessing the problems
in the special schools and units on which
our skills as social workers could be most
usefully directed, and how our activities could
be related to those of other agencies in the
borough. We also formed contacts with these
agencies wherever possible
This policy has been pursued during the
past year. and. as a result, the part that we
are able to play is being recognised There
has been good liaison between the welfare
and children's departments, careers officers
health visitors, child guidance and others
and also many voluntary societies The
lunch-time meetings of social workers in the
borough to discuss specific fields of work
have been valuable and have increased
awareness of each others' roles
We have given talks on our work in special
schools; Mrs Wisdom to the parents of preschool
children at Martindale; Mrs Harding
to the British Society of Audiology on her
work at the hearing clinic We have also
attended several conferences on the problems
of the handicapped child and his family
The contacts we havefnade enabled us to
exercise some control over the number of
agencies who may be concerned over a
particular family It would be wrong to assume
that only one social worker should deal with
one family, but it is undesirable that several
should be involved perhaps unbeknown to one
another Several different agencies can be
helpfully involved so long as they are liaising
and in agreement with each other

Of the 122 referrals approximately half were
simple cases dealt with in one or two visits
and half were difficult cases The latter
require a number of visits to provide continuous
support during the child's school career In
addition some 60 cases referred during 1967/8
continued to be dealt with during the following
year, giving a total case load of 180 cases
between 1½ social workers
63