Catalogue description Records of the Medical Branch, the Special Education Branch, and predecessors

Prior to 1907, although various special services for handicapped children had come within the Board of Education's field of responsibility under legislation of 1893 relating to blind and deaf children and of 1899 relating to defective and epileptic children, no special administrative arrangements had been made for the conduct of this business.

In 1907, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, section 13, laid upon the local education authority (LEA) 'the duty to provide for the medical inspection of children immediately before, or at the time of, or as soon as possible after, their admission to a public elementary school, and on such other occasions as the Board of Education may direct, and the power to make such arrangements as may be sanctioned by the Board of Education for attending to the health and physical condition of the children educated in public elementary schools.' The provisions of this act made it necessary for the board to employ professional medical staff and the Medical Branch was established in 1907 under a chief medical officer and given responsibility for the administration of all special services. The branch was responsible for the school medical service (even after statutory responsibility for it was transferred to the Ministry of Health in 1919). The provision of school meals and milk, the organisation and inspection of physical training, the supervision of evening play centres, maternity and infant welfare (until 1919 when these were transferred to the Ministry of Health), day nurseries and institutions providing post-elementary education for handicapped children were among its other responsibilities.

The 1907 Act made medical inspection of these children mandatory and provided for any necessary treatment to be provided by the LEAs. By the outbreak of war in 1939, LEAs were giving medical inspections at least three times during a child's school life and providing treatment for skin diseases, defective vision, dental disease and infected tonsils and adenoids, while many also ran clinics to treat ear infections, orthopaedic defects, squint, ringworm, heart disease and rheumatism and a few also provided child guidance clinics. LEAs were also responsible for identifying "exceptional" children (defined as blind, partially blind, deaf, partially deaf, crippled, delicate, mentally defective and epileptic) and for educating them in special schools. As far as was possible, the school medical service was maintained during the two world wars, but inevitably, especially during the Second World War, it suffered from shortages of staff and accommodation.

The Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906 gave LEAs the right to provide premises for and assist the work of voluntary associations which had begun to provide meals and hot drinks for needy schoolchildren. If sufficient funds were not available the Authority, with the permission of the Board, was authorised to raise a rate of not more than half pence in the pound to defray expenses. The Milk Act 1934 made provision for the supply of milk, at first at a subsidised rate and from 1946, free. No very large expansion in the school meals service took place until the Second World War; but after temporary dislocation on the outbreak of war, it was soon recognised as the best way of ensuring that children got adequate food despite difficulties caused by rationing, mass evacuation and so on. Rapid expansion of the service followed, the Treasury bearing capital costs. The Education Act 1944 gave LEAs a statutory duty to provide school meals for all primary and secondary school pupils who wanted them and regulations set out the required standards. Full financial responsibility for the service passed to the LEAs in 1967.

After the Second World War the Medical Branch was renamed the Special Services Branch. In the early 1970s there were separate Special Education and Medical branches. After 1972, the Department's health functions were transferred to the National Health Service, with its special education functions transferred to one of the Department of Education and Science's three schools branches, the entire staff and time of one of these branches becoming occupied with special services.