§ 37. Mr. Madelasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans she has for further increasing the places at special schools for mentally handicapped children; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mrs. ThatcherI have been giving an increasingly high priority to providing places at special schools for severely educationally subnormal children since their transfer to the education service in 1971. 879 new places were authorised to start in 1971–72, 917 in 1972–73 and 1,571 in 1973–74. In the years ahead I hope to include a further substantial number of these places in building programmes.