Catalogue description Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch: Provision of Special Schools, Files

Alphabetically in county and county borough order.

The statutory foundation of special educational provision for handicapped children was laid in the last decade of the 19th Century and remained broadly unchanged until the Education Act 1944.

The Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act 1893, laid upon every school authority the duty of providing education for blind and deaf children resident in the area in some school certified for the purpose by the Education Department.

The Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act 1899, empowered authorities to provide for the training of physically and mentally defective and epileptic children. These powers were made a duty in respect of mentally defective children by the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act 1914, and in respect of physically defective and epileptic children by the Education Act 1918.

The implementation of the relevant sections of the Education Act 1944, and their subsequent modification in the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts of 1948 and 1953, together with changes in provision engendered by the National Health Service Act 1946, marked the post war period of changing attitudes to the needs of special educational provision. The new procedures were laid down in the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations 1945 and subsequent Regulations, further enactments being promulgated in 1953 and 1959.