ABSTRACT
Changing attitudes, developing knowledge, growing awareness of the complexity of the problem—all these mean that the challenge presented by inequality of educational opportunity will have to be met in future by a response that is flexible yet well organized. Co-operation between social agencies outside the schools suffers from the same—or even greater—lack of clarity over roles, and the same sterile inter-professional tensions. The welfare teams are intended to keep in touch with parents of pre-school children, advising about pre-school activities, about school places, and about welfare to which they are entitled. In a somewhat different scheme pioneered by the Glasgow Education Committee, qualified social workers are attached to the staff of schools with direct responsibility to the head for social work. The Education Welfare Officers' function within the team is to foster a good and close relationship with parents and to try to create an atmosphere in the home in which parents are prepared to talk about their difficulties.
