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Series

Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch:...

Catalogue reference: ED 133

What's it about?

ED 133

Files of the Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch relating to the provision of special schools and related problems in the individual local education authority areas.

Full description and record details

Reference
ED 133
Title
Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch: Provision of Special Schools, Files
Date
1900-1963
Description

Files of the Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch relating to the provision of special schools and related problems in the individual local education authority areas.

Arrangement
Arrangement

Alphabetically in county and county borough order.

Separated material

The files suffered much wartime destruction and very few pre-1936 papers have survived.

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference
M file series
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
English
Creator(s)
  • Board of Education, 1899-1944
  • Board of Education, Medical Branch, 1923-1944
  • Board of Education, Medical Department, 1907-1923
  • Ministry of Education, Medical Branch, 1944-1948
  • Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch, 1948-1964
Physical description
188 file(s)
Access conditions
Subject to 30 year closure
Subjects
Topics
Education
Selection and destruction information
A few specimen files only have been included for the years 1956-1963.
Administrative / biographical background

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.

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C6932/

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

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