ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of the local education authority in social work, the starting-point is the essentially practical one that in any co-operative enterprise it is better if each partner puts his own house in order before spreading himself abroad. Education must insist on having its own resources to tackle work essential to meet its objectives, both in providing education, and detecting and treating the handicaps of children who need it. The objectives an education authority sets itself must be the result of similar analysis and regular re-appraisal. The elected members of the education committee have responsibility for establishing these objectives, but of course they are unlikely to be able, or to want, to do this alone. The education officer's responsibility is to see that committees have the information they need to make an informed decision. So the education officer's responsibility might properly begin with an ordered appraisal of possible objectives.
