LCC , London County Council x London County Council

In 1945 the Ministry of Education issued regluations determining which disabilities required special educational treatment, namely, "the blind, the partially sighted, the deaf, the partially deaf, the diabetic, the delicate, the educationally sub-normal, the epileptic, the maladjusted, the physically disabled and those with speech defects".

Not all disabled children needed to be educated in special schools. Children with partial hearing, who formerly attended special schools, were able after 1947 to attend special units in ordinary primary schools, and in 1959 arrangements were made for the attendance of partially hearing children at secondary schools. Similarly, of children with defective sight, only the most severely handicapped needed to attend special schools. Arrangements were made for the transportation of children from home to school, and if a child was so severely handicapped that travel to school was not feasible arrangements were made for education in hospital or at home. Children with cerebral palsy were provided with special classes, to which they were taken by ambulance.

The curriculum of the special schools was designed to give a basic education similar to that in ordinary schools. Children were encouraged to disregard their disability and to look upon themselves as normal. They went to the rural centres, on school journeys, and on educational visits, and had their share of concerts and other cultural activities. There were special medical care and treatment to facilitate the education of the deaf and the blind.

For children whose behaviour pointed to emotional disturbance, there were child-guidance clinics, of which the Council maintained seven, others being provided by hospital authorities. The Council was the first local education authority to appoint its own psychologist to investigate cases of special difficulty. This work was later undertaken by a team of educational specialists attached to the inspectorate. In 1962 the Council opened a special class providing therapy and education for young psychotic and autistic children. The Council was the first authority in the country to give financial assistance to the special home tuition groups run by the Society for Autistic Children.

Special schools also included industrial, reformatory and truant schools for juvenile delinquents or children found vagrant.