Deane occupied over many years senior positions in the IHC, including that of President, and oversaw a period of great change for people with an intellectual handicap, change enabling them to live more normal lives in the wider community. Closure of the country's special schools and psychopaedic institutions facilitated this process, which also involved young people moving into normal schools and IHC buying many hundreds of houses to provide an environment as close as possible to normal living for intellectually handicapped people in regular communities.