ABSTRACT
Parents experience confusion about different treatment approaches provided by different authorities and funding sources. Nevertheless separation is characteristic of British social policy. At government level health and social services are organised separately from education and governed by different legislation. The amount of medical care available to disabled children therefore depended on their family’s financial status and the extent of their impairments. The National Health Service Act 1946 made no specific provision for the handicapped, but the growth of rehabilitative treatments took place within the new organisational context. The Jay Committee developed the themes identified by Court and Warnock about the care of children in the community, taking as its focus the mentally handicapped. Financial constraints have proved as problematic as organisational issues throughout the history of the National Health Service. A key finding to emerge was the importance to families of having a ‘named person’ to co-ordinate services and facilitates informal networks.
