ABSTRACT
In this chapter Jenny Corbett describes the changes in approach from 1971 to 1991 at a school for children and young people aged 2 to 19 who are categorised as having severe learning difficulties. She worked as head of special care at the school between 1977 and 1982 and draws on the recollections of staff at the school as well as further visits to document the school’s development. She focuses on one particular issue: the suggestion that those pupils classified as in need of ‘special care’ because of their frailty, lack of development or ‘challenging’ behaviour might be integrated with the other pupils. The proposal from the head met with a diverse set of responses, including the view of a member of her own department that it was ‘totally impractical’.
