Warnock (1978)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction
Chapter 1 General approach
Chapter 2 Historical background
Chapter 3 Scope of special education
Chapter 4 Discovery, assessment and recording
Chapter 5 Children under five
Chapter 6 Schoolchildren with special needs: introduction
Chapter 7 Special education in ordinary schools
Chapter 8 Special education in special schools
Chapter 9 Parents as partners
Chapter 10 Transition from school to adult life
Chapter 11 Some curricular considerations
Chapter 12 Teacher education and training
Chapter 13 Advice and support in special education
Chapter 14 Other education service staff
Chapter 15 Health service and social services
Chapter 16 Relations between professionals, confidentiality and coordination of services
Chapter 17 Voluntary organisations
Chapter 18 Research and development
Chapter 19 Priorities and resources
Summary of recommendations

Appendices

Appendix 1 List of contributors
Appendix 2 Categories of handicapped pupils
Appendix 3 Possible grid as basis for statistical returns
Appendix 4 Organisation of health service
Appendix 5 Research project on services for parents of under 5s
Appendix 6 Research project on pre-school education
Appendix 7 Research project on employment experiences of handicapped school leavers
Appendix 8 Survey of teachers' views on special education

Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the education of handicapped children and young people

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

ISBN 0 10 172120 X

Appendix 7 Research project on the employment of handicapped school leavers
[pages 391 - 392]

1. This research project was commissioned at our request from the National Children's Bureau. It began in October 1975 and lasted two years. The senior research officer was Mr A Walker (now at the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield) and the research assistant Miss P Lewis.

2. The aims of the project were:

(i) to explore the reasons for the success or failure of handicapped young people to get or keep a job; and

(ii) to obtain some indication of the extent of unused capacity for employment up to the age of about 18 years, together with a consideration of further education, training and of family and other support.

4. For the purposes of the selection of the sample 'handicap' was defined as the need for special educational treatment. Four groups of young people were distinguished:

(i) The handicapped group
Those young people formally ascertained as needing special education. A preliminary analysis of the data from the 16 year old follow-up revealed a total of 596 young people who had been ascertained as handicapped at some time during their life. The final sample for this research project excluded those who had been ascertained as handicapped and had previously received special education but were no longer receiving it at 16 (234). The largest number in the handicapped group was that of the ESN(M), reflecting their numerical preponderance in the total population of handicapped young people.* The majority of the handicapped (nearly two thirds) had been in special schools or units at 16.

(ii) The 'special help' group
Those receiving help for educational backwardness but who were not formally ascertained. According to their teachers this group received special help within the school because of educational or mental backwardness.

(iii) The 'would benefit' group
Those not formally ascertained, nor receiving any special educational help at 16, but who in the opinion of their teachers would have benefited from such provision.

(iv) The non-handicapped group
A control group of those not ascertained, not receiving and not needing any special help for educational backwardness, behaviour difficulties, physical or sensory disability at 16 years.

The sample was stratified disproportionately in relation to these four groups. All the groups except that of the handicapped were sampled randomly.

5. The research was based on a structured interview carried out with each young person in which details were obtained of his employment status, his previous employment, his education and training and the careers advice which he had received. The interview schedules were tested and revised on the basis of two small pilot studies carried out in London and Northumberland and the main survey interviews were conducted in the summer and autumn of 1976.

6. Just over one fifth of the original sample refused to take part in the survey and the final response rate was 64 per cent. There was a relatively high response rate of 82 per cent at the field-work stage. The numbers of young people in each group with whom interviews were completed are shown below.

7. Parents were interviewed where the young person was living at home and one parent was available to be interviewed. A questionnaire was also sent to a small sample of head teachers of selected special and ordinary schools seeking information about contact with parents, careers advice and preparation for the world of work. A further questionnaire was sent to 156 employers selected from the employers of the young people in the sample.

8. A report on the research project is to be published later in 1978.

Reference

(1) Butler NR and Alberman ED Perinatal problems (E and S Livingstone 1969); Davie R, Butler NR and Goldstein H From birth to seven (Longman 1972); Fogelman K (ed) Britain's sixteen year olds (National Children's Bureau, 1976).