Educational services for mentally handicapped children in Northern Ireland: A survey of provision

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Abstract
Until April 1987 mentally handicapped children were legally excluded from education in Northern Ireland. Provision was made instead in special care schools administered by social services authorities. This contrasts with the position in the rest of the UK where all children have been educated in schools administered by education authorities since the early 1970s. A survey was conducted to investigate aspects of provision in special care schools. Comparative samples of special schools for children with mental handicap in England, and special schools for other categories of children with special needs in Northern Ireland were also surveyed. Results show that the special care school pupils were disadvantaged often seriously, compared with the other samples. Staffing ratios were inferior in most respects of provision. Other resources were often criticized by head teachers as inadequate. The special care school transport system was also shown to be seriously deficient, causing the length of the school day to be reduced for a very large proportion of pupils. The inadequacies identified impinged particularly on severely and profoundly handicapped pupils, despite earlier Government arguments that the interests of this group could be damaged in a transfer to education. Nearly one fifth of the special care school population were aged 19 and over, and nearly one third of the profoundly handicapped pupils were 19 or over. In many cases adults and children shared the same facilities. These results are compared and contrasted with Government documents which claimed parity of provision in special care schools and special schools in England, and which adopted a stated policy of normalization in the development of services for the mentally handicapped.

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