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TRAINING CENTRES
There are two training centres in the borough. The Kensington (Junior) Training
Centre in Wallingford Avenue, W. 10., is a purpose-built centre erected about seven years ago.
Many visitors from other countries have been directed hereby the Ministry of Health and the
London Boroughs Training Committee to see both the building and the methods of teaching
and training applied under the direction of the Supervisor, Mrs. K.A. Grass. Children of
both sexes attend this Centre until the age of sixteen, when boys are transferred to the Adult
Centre in Branstone Street, W. 10. This is an old school building and is due to be replaced
within the next two years. Activities consist mainly of basket and cane work together with
carpentry, all under the direction of the Supervisor, Mr. R.F. Potter. It is felt that excellent
work is carried out at the Centre under difficult conditions. The Council have no
training centre for elder girls, and at present such trainees when reaching the age of sixteen
are transferred either to College Park Centre (Borough of Hammersmith) or Balham Elder
Girls' Centre (Borough of Wandsworth). The ten-year programme for the development of
the personal health services in the Borough provides for the eventual building of a senior
training centre for both sexes and this will provide the solution to the present somewhat unsatisfactory
state of affairs in this respect.
During recent years considerable advances have taken place in the treatment of
mental illness and there has been agrowing, but as yet onlypartial, realisation that the social
opporbrium formerly associated with it is unjustified and medically incorrect. The change
in outlook was signified by the repeal of obsolete, compulsive statutes and by the enactment
of the Mental Health Act, 1959, which sought to remove to a large measure the restrictive
provisions thought necessary in the past. In particular, mental welfare officers now carry
responsibilities greaterthan their predecessors since in addition to their duties inconnection
with the compulsory admission of patients to hospital they are social workers actively concerned
with the care of patients in the community. Public attitudes are, however, not
generally fully attuned as yet to a proper understanding of mental illness and subnormality
and it is therefore hoped that, in addition to the provision of care and attention for the persons
referred to it, the Council are also making a contribution in some small degree towards
a more enlightened public attitude to these problems.