Profile: the voluntary council for handicapped children.

The Voluntary Council for Handicapped Children is an independently elected Council, established under the aegis of the National Children's Bureau in 1975. The Council arose from a recommendation in the Eileen Younghusband Working Party's report, Living with Handicap, in 1970. This major report draws attention to the gaps, overlaps and general lack of co-ordination and information about services for handicapped children. It recommended the creation of a genuinely multidisciplinary council to provide a forum for joint discussion and action, to offer a comprehensive advisory and information service covering all aspects of childhood disability. The Voluntary Council for Handicapped Children is unique in providing a comprehensive service for all categories of handicap, and for statutory and voluntary agencies. Parents and professionals can use the Council as a resource centre on an individual basis, although casework cannot be provided. The role of the Council is essentially that of a signpost to existing resources. It is, in effect, an advisory body collecting, evaluating and disseminating information, promoting study and discussion by organizations and individuals and seeking to identify gaps in present services.