Catalogue description Board of Education, Medical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Special Services Branch: Training Establishments for Handicapped Persons, Files

Alphabetical order of counties up to piece 164 and subsequently in file number order of counties followed by county boroughs.

Schools certified under the Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act 1893 and the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899 provided for such children up to the age of 16. Continuance of instruction and training were met to some extent by provision made under the Regulations for Evening Schools and courses aided by the Board of Education under Regulations for Technical Schools, etc.

Special grants to encourage the development of courses for former scholars of special schools were introduced in 1917 under regulations known as "Regulations for Institutions providing instruction in preparation for a Trade for students formerly in attendance at Special Schools". They formed no part of the special school regulations at that time although general regulations concerning recognition and the conduct of Institutions were common to both, subject to minor modifications.

The training institution was further recognised in 1920 as an essential link between the special school and the workshop and Regulations for the Training of Blind, etc. Students for Higher Education were introduced to secure better and more extended facilities for students. Grant aid was modified and substantially increased.

These regulations were repealed in 1925 when special conditions applicable to full-time courses of higher education for blind, deaf, defective and epileptic Students were incorporated in the Board of Education (Special Services) Regulations, 1925.

The introduction of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act, 1944, under which the Minister of Labour and National Service was made generally responsible for the training and employment of disabled persons, including the blind, resulted in the withdrawal of recognition from a number of training establishments. The principles governing the continued recognition of other institutions under the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulation, 1945 and the division of responsibility between the Minister of Labour and National Service and the Minister of Education for the training of disabled persons was set out in the Ministry of Education Circular 68 (1945).