ABSTRACT
Our welfare state makes a considerable effort to supply varied support to help families in need, whether they are deviant, improvident, aggressive, inadequate or unfortunate. Yet there can be difficulties for the teacher who may be seeking support or advice in dealing with the problems of a pupil: not only may there be a local absence or inadequacy of particular support, but there can also be difficulty in managing liaison with, and understanding the characteristics of, various aid agencies who do not necessarily work well together, and who may even give the appearance of cordially disliking each other at times. Many headteachers seek a more standardized and efficient liaison system with the agencies with which they seek to deal. The school appears to be the institution at the centre of the web of aid which is best suited to manage liaison about children with the various professional and voluntary workers, but there may be professional jealousies, differing qualities of staff, differing standards of training, contrasting values, greatly differing work loads and sometimes a distrust of a teacher or school to bedevil coordination.
