The Board of Education’s Circular on Mentally Defective Children
The Circular issued by the Board of Education on September 12th, a full summary of which we print below, is one of the most important steps to promote the welfare and safeguarding of mentally defective children which has been taken by any Government Department since the passing of the Mental Deficiency Act and the Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act in 1913 and 1914, and as such we commend it to the readers for their close study.
The position of educable mentally defective children in areas where no Special School exists has for years been one of grave concern to those who have their interests at heart, and now at last the problem has received official recognition. It is true?as the Board is the first to point out?that no scheme for their care which does not include in it full provision for the special education to which they are legally entitled can be accepted as a final solution of the difficulty, but if the recommendations of the Circular are put into practice they will at least ensure that the needs of these children whom nature has so gravely handicapped are no longer completely ignored, and that some effort is being made to meet them, even though the methods adopted can be only regarded as ” emergency ” measures.
The official lead thus given to Education Authorities creates for Mental Welfare organisations the opportunity for increased activity.
In the first place, the readiness with which a Local Education Authority adopts the suggestions made will largely depend on the amount of public opinion which it believes to lie behind them. Secondly, the supervision of defectives in their own homes?a subject with which the Circular deals at considerable length? has always been one of the most important functions of Associations for Mental Welfare, and because they are free to carry out such supervision for any and all defectives, whatever their age and whatever their position in the eyes of the law, experience has shown that they can provide the help necessary in a more systematic and comprehensive way than is possible by any other means. Thirdly, many Associations have of recent years experimented as to ways and means of occupying unoccupied defectives, and though the Circular does not explicitly mention this point, it may be assumed that the Board will consider the ” Supervision ” it advocates most fully developed in those areas where it includes some attempt to provide occupation.
Thus to Associations already existing and working in close co-operation with their Education Authorities the issue of this Circular should give fresh stimulus and weight. To areas where no Associations have as yet been started it will tend to reveal the need for machinery of just the kind that it is their chief object to provide.
Over and over again in the past there has been stressed by all whose work lies with defectives, the need for their continuous care ; over and over again experience has demonstrated the disastrous effects of dealing with them in rigidly water-tight compartments. One of the most valuable features of the Circular is its attempt to grapple with this evil by emphasising the need for prolonged supervision and for co-operation between the authorities most closely concerned ? providing it. If an Education Authority, using its powers under the Choice of Employment Act, delegates to a Voluntary Committee the work of supervising defective children until they reach the age of 18, this same Committee can continue to supervise after this age, and so ensure that in case of emergency later on t e defective will be notified under the Mental Deficiency Act. In areas where the Choice of Employment Act is not in operation a Voluntary Committee s services can in a similar way be enlisted by the Ministry of Labour, an arrangement which has already in one such area been successfully completed. But whatever scheme is adopted no continuity of care can be guaranteed unless there is some mac inery ?such as that provided by a Voluntary Association?available for the Supervision of defectives, whatever may be their age, which can be used alike by the Education Authority and the Mental Deficiency Committee. The importance of this is enhanced by the recommendation of the Circular that the Local Education Authority should report to the Mental Deficiency Committee the names of mentally defective children who have been under their jurisdiction, for this makes it essential that the Mental Deficiency Committee should have working in close co-operation with them some voluntary organisation to whom such cases can be referred for friendly supervision and by whom they will be reported should they become ” subject to be dealt with ” under the Act.
Co-operation of the kind indicated above is not only to be urged because its systematic adoption will mean a general heightening of efficiency of our administrative machinery. It is also demanded because if supervision is to be a real help and influence for good in a defective’s life it is essential that it should be carried out continuously by the same person, despite changes in t e u ion les ?n whose behalf the visits are paid…
The C.A.M.W. therefore hopes that the Circular, bringing as it does the whole subject freshly into prominence, may be a prelude to a great expansion o eni a Welfare work in connection with mentally defective children. o is en e Association is sending a Memoranda to all Local Education Authorities m whose areas as yet no Voluntary Association exists, pointing out the services it believes its branches to be in a position to render in connection with the Board s new recommendations, and offering its assistance in starting Associations wherever they would be likely to meet with general approval and support.
SUMMARY OF CIRCULAR*. ——————1 .-The Board desire to lay the following faetsand suggestions.before LogJ Mueatoln Authorities and to ask for their co-operation in doing all that is possio stances to ameliorate the lot of mentally defective dbildren. f,ligation ^Defective andEpilepWar ?Ji’^P^^ur^r^rof.’wMU wUyS^’tigate the results that follow from a temporary insufficiency of Special Schools. * The italics are ours.?Ed, 3.?The basis of any adequate scheme is the through ascertainment of all children who are mentally deficient within the meaning of the Acts. This is a duty which every Authority may be expected to carry out in its entirety, irrespective of the actual provision now available in Special Schools, and in these areas where this essential preliminary work is not yet adequately carried out, the Board will ask the Authority to take immediate steps to supply this defect. When such arrangements are Avorking adequately and smoothly the result will be that the children ascertained will consist of two groups, first, those who ought to be notified at once to the Mental Deficiency Committee, and, second, those who ought to be sent to Special Schools. The latter will fall again into two classes?those for whom Special School accommodation can be found and those for whom it does not at present exist.
Mentally Defective Children in Special Schools.
4.?As the children in Special Schools approach the age of 16, the Local Education Authority is required to notify to the Mental Deficiency Committee the names of those who, in their opinion, will need Institution or Guardianship under the Mental Deficiency Act. This provision is in many cases carefully observed but it is at times over-looked and its importance is one of the first points that the Board desire to bring to the Authority’s attention. In order that it may be made effective the Local Education Authority should secure a clear report on each child for whom they are responsible in a Special School?whether Day or Residential,?six months before the date of leaving.
5. A report simply on the child’s educational attainments, such as is referred to in the preceding paragraph, is only of course one of the factors that have to be considered. This should be supplemented by a report from the Medical Officer and one on home circumstances and environment made by a Care Visitor or other competent and experienced person of this type. This is a point of great importance as a child may have an excellent report based purely on mental progress and yet be entirely unfit owing to other circumstances, to be left without care and protection in future.
6. The importance of securing the notification of suitable cases of children about to leave Special Schools at 16 cannot be exaggerated, and in the absence of such notification much of the trouble already bestowed on the child in the School is thrown away. Continuity of care is broken and the child may be lost sight of and exposed to moral dangers until some unhappy circumstance brings it to the notice of the Mental Deficiency Committee. The Board therefore earnestly urge all Authorities who do not already do so, to lose no time in making arrangements for the adequate consideration of all these cases on the general lines suggested above.
7. The Board desire in this connection to clear up two mis-conceptions, first, that before notification of these cases it is necessary to obtain the consent of the Board; second, that if vacancies in institutions are not immediately available notification is useless. During the period of waiting the Mental Deficiency Committee can keep the child under supervision or send it to a Place of Safety, if the need is urgent. Moreover the development of ‘ ‘Occupation Centres” furnishes a very useful means of dealing with notified cases that do not need residential treatment , and the existence of such a centre in any locality will be a guarantee to the Local Education Authority that that provision can in fact be made for suitable notifiable cases.
8. It will be noticed that Local Education Authorities have power to notify for Institutional treatment or Guardianship, but not for supervision. Many Authorities, however, supply to the Mental Deficiency Committee lists of boys and girls leaving Special Schools for whom supervision appears to be needed. Although without legal force such arrangements provide means for maintaining friendly contact on a voluntary basis and can safely be recommended. Mentally Defective Children not in Special Schools.
9. In the case of certified Mentally Defective Children for whom at present no Special School accommodation is available, somewhat different considerations arise. At present large numbers of them are in attendance at ordinary Public Elementary Schools and between the ages of five and fourteen they are at least under the control and supervision involved by school attendance. At fourteen, however, they leave and although they remain the responsibility of the local Education Authority until they are sixteen, they frequently pass out of its sphere without any steps having been taken to secure their supervision by care and protection. A few of them are kept under supervision by the Education Authority by means of school nurses, Care Committees or voluntary organisations such as the local branch of the Central Association for Mental Welfare to which in some cases the Authority pays, with the approval and assistance of the Board, an annual sum in return for services rendered.
10. As regards children who never go to a Public Elementary School the position is even less satisfactory. No doubt if supervision is provided for all children between fourteen and sixteen such children are included in it, but otherwise they are ignored through the whole of their childhood and at sixteen pass out of the hands of the Local Education Authority without any precaution for their future welfare having been taken.
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11. It will be seen that in the majority of cases, children for whom no Special School provision is made labour under two disadvantages. First, they lose the education, control and general discipline given in these Schools. Secondly, they lost the opportunity of being at sixteen transferred to the care of the Mental Deficiency Committee. This latter disability is one ?f the most serious gaps which now exists in the machinery for the care of the feeble-minded . The mere fact of their not having attended a Special School leads to their needs?which arc at least as great and probably greater than are those of the children who have had this advantage being overlooked, and they are only discovered after they have got into trouble and perhaps inflicted serious damage both on themselves and on the community. ,. ,
. 12. The Board desire to emphasise that both the difficulties referred to above, can-even .n existing circumstances?be overcome or largely diminished. It is 7?lt jtnnrH nrr an Authority to make arrati”ements for the supervision of these children, Prepared for the purpose of their own administration to regard such f work which is incidental to ascertainment and the enforcement of fcept reasonable expenditure on such work for the purposes of their Srantf^Sp^alServica. ?uch supervision, which will of course apply mainly to children who are ^^??1 a^L can be exercised in a variety of ways, e .g., by school nurses, Care Committees, paid ^ elfore Woi kers, or voluntary organisations. Its main objects are to provide parents wltlh.”she^^d^e/tS0 ?ime treatment of the children, and to help the Authority to select cases ^^ch^omtimeto time become notifiable to the Mental Deficiency Committee. It is of the ^ Authorities who for the time being are unable to send a mcntaHy defective child to a Spe^ciU School should keep it constantly under close supervision .especially as it g o ^at article ready to take advantage of the provision of Article 5* of the d.reelarticle becomes the appropriate means of dealing with the child, It may Rlinervision it is possitally defective children not in Special Schools are thus kept under 8 ble for Authorities to adopt the same measure of precautions as is ^con”fn^^^hildren ?vh* are above, viz., that of supplying to the Mental Deficiency Committee lists. of ^se wno w &b?ut to pass out of their jurisdiction at sixteen and who should be kep-under friendly super vision. It is hardly necessary to point out that in view of the Siildren cJ?ld, it is essential that all persons selected for the supervision of m^teHy defective children should possess discernment and tact and experience in dealing with mental dele .
13. The close supervision of mentally defective chihiren m luhich the Board recommend for the early consideration of Loca ,nursc oniy a purely probe put into practice at once at very little expense . Bu l , needs both of the childvisional and temporary measure and is only intended to meetthe ^^nceds both ot th,ecu a fen and of the community until a more adequate system becomes .poM^le . rhe Board btlitve however that its adoption will in fact go far to tide over a difficult h also help in the building up of a body of experience that will ‘ financial circumstances permit a more rapid advance towards a nc scheme.
Mentally Defective Children in Classes for Mentally Retarded (Dull and Backward) of s 14 ? The Board do not propose in this Circular to deal1 with? ? f importance nd it has been suggested that amongst the higher grar > Experience alone can show how Schools there are some who might be included in such llabses. ^xpcnei tion ATth8 referS to the Provision mfdthU1Board of Edu<?U(m” have power t?notify a feeble*???f ??spc?iai which indicate the need of Supervision or Guardianship. , mi be s0 interpreted as to allow the n The Board evidently intend that in future t 1 p would therefore seem desirable, in notification of children who are in any social danger, It maU th&t Education Ait+rf advantage may be takei of this CL, cases of defective children between fonrt?rities or Voluntary Committees should revie ? whom it oould fourteen and sixteen alrtidy under supervision in the event or tnere oeing y now be applied.
far such type of provision will prove satisfactory, but in any event where no Special School exists or where the number of defective children is not large enough to justify one, it seems preferable that the higher grade defectives should be grouped with the mentally retarded children under a specially qualified teacher rather than be left in the ordinary classes of the school, as both types of children frequently require, for a time at least, similar teaching. 15. On the other hand there are certain objections to the scheme. It may encourage Authorities who might reasonably be expected to provide a Special School to be content with a less satisfactory arrangement. Where accommodation for Special Classes is limited there will be a tendency to give preference to tlic feeble-minded children over the mentally retarded as being more troublesome in the ordinary school and this latter group will be penalised for the sake of the former. Last ly attendance in such Classes cannot be enforced after 14, and thus the feebleminded children would suffer between fourteen and sixteen the neglect already pointed out earlier in this circular.
16. The balance of advantage will in practice depend largely on the circumstances. Though in general it may be accepted that children certified as Mentally Defective can best be taught in Special Schools, quite reasonably satisfactory arrangements can be made for them in ordinary schools by intelligent planning. In fact the exact boundary line between Special Schools and ordinary schools is difficult to fix. The better the ordinary school the more competent will it be to deal adequately with sub-normal children who under other circumstances would have to be sent to a Special School. In any case it is important that efforts should be made to secure the admission into residential Special Schools of all mentally defective children who have anti-social characteristics or other serious character defects.
Go-operation between the Local Education Authority and Mental Deficency Committee. 17. It is hardly necessary to add that the successful working of the arrangements referred to in this Circular depend largely on the co-operation of the two local bodies concerned with mentally defective children. This can be secured in various ways, but whatever the method adopted the object remains the same. The Local Education Authority need to know what happens to their children after notification in order that they may satisfy themselves of the correctness of their standard. The Mental Deficiency Committee need to know the previous history of the children placed in their care. The Board would urge?with the full concurrence of the Board of Control?on all Local Education Authorities the need for bringing their work for mentally defective children into the closest contact with that of the Mental Deficiency Committee .
This paragraph is a summary of the preceding suggestions.
19. It only remains for the Board to add that in the preparation of this Circular they have had the advantage of discussing its recommendendations with the principal Associations of Authorities, officials, teachers and voluntary workers concerned and with other persons of special experience in dealing with mentally defective children, and they are glad to know that the Circular is generally welcomed and approved.
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