§ 21. Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when she expects to complete her consultations over the implementation of section 10 of the Education Act 1976 relating to the integration of handicapped children.
§ Mrs. Shirley Williams:Last year my Department consulted over 100 bodies concerned with the education of handicapped children, including the local authority associations, teachers' associations, professional organisations and voluntary interests, on the implementation of section 10 of the Education Act 1976. In all, 69 responses were received and the respondents' views were taken into account by the Warnock committee in preparing its report.
The Warnock committee's report considers the implications of section 10 in great detail as well as other aspects of integration and points out that acceptance of the new statutory structure of special education which it advocates would call for consequential amendment of the wording of section 10.
The committee's report is currently the subject of widespread consultations, including a range of interests in the education, health and social services. As I made clear soon after it was enacted and have since repeated on a number of occasions, it is my intention to await the outcome of consultations on the report before deciding what action to take on section 10.