Mentally Handicapped Children

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 February 1966.

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Photo of Mr Alf Morris Mr Alf Morris , Manchester Wythenshawe 12:00, 18 February 1966

I recently heard a very moving speech at the Conference of the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. It was made by the parent of an educationally subnormal child from Altrincham and Sale in Cheshire. He was speaking, in the main, to other parents. And I am satisfied that most parents of educationally subnormal children are acutely conscious of their responsibilities. Where there is an emotional blockage to learning, resulting, for instance, from divorce and the breakdown of family life, the parents concerned bear a heavy responsibility for the damage that accrues to their children.

Dr. Simon Yudkin, an expert in this matter, has said that all children need to be accepted in society as worthwhile people. This will not happen until the generous spirit that has informed this debate also informs every official action in this field. We urgently need more action to help the less fortunate members of our society. A very distinguished predecessor of my right hon. Friend, Mr. Aneurin Bevan, said that any society should be judged according to the way in which it treated those who were most in need. I hope that our society will be held in ever higher regard for the manner in which it treats children like those whose problems we have been discussing with such compassion today.