View report page

PROGRESS REPORT ON KINGSLEY HALL DAY
CENTRE FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN UNDER 5
The opening of Kingsley Hall Day Centre for Handicapped Children in May 1960
was the outcome of a report on handicapped children under 5 years of age in Dagenham
in 1957 which was put to the Health Committee and published in my annual report for
that year.
The survey reported brought to our notice 85 children under 5, i.e., 1% of the
8,000 o—4 year-olds in Dagenham with a degree of handicap likely to necessitate special
schooling. That was 3 years ago, and the survey of these children, together with new
additions to the register of handicapped children under 5 now kept in the Health Department,
has been continued by constant home visiting and reviews in the clinics of all
children with mental or physical defects.
Most of the children originally visited and considered suitable for the proposed
Day Centre have now either reached school age and are attending Special Schools, or
have died or moved from Dagenham, so that when in the first few months of i960 after
all the preliminary obstacles had been overcome, briefly to be summarised as final approval
by everyone at local, County and Ministry levels, and then back and forth between the
Health Area and the County on matters of detail in planning, converting, equipping,
staffing and financing, all but 4 of the original children were no longer in need. The
remaining 4 will be discussed later as they presented a problem in itself.
At the beginning of 1960 we were able to make a start in the reorganising of the
Kingsley Hall Day Nursery which was closed in February and the few remaining children
transferred to the other two day nurseries. The staff, too, were transferred, with the
exception of the warden who attended Osborne Hall Day Training Centre to gain
experience with mentally handicapped children.
The Borough Surveyor's Department moved in and it is largely due to their keen
interest and enthusiasm that a building which had little promise was converted by
skilful floor laying, kitchen modernisation and a happy choice of colour into a gay and
welcoming centre in three months. The Warden of Kingsley Hall, from whose Committee
the building is rented, deserves our thanks for his agreement and co-operation
in the modernisation of their building.
The County Council had agreed with the proposal that no charge should be made
as the Centre was to be for the ascertainment and the needs of the children in a way
in which the day nurseries cannot be, and this generosity has made all the difference in
persuading the more needy parents to send their children; in all cases these were the
children and parents most in need of help.
Staffing was a problem that, looking back from the safe distance of seven months'
harmonious working, one wonders what our worries were, but we had a core of day
nursery staff to be fitted into the new scheme, and an agreed establishment of Sister-inCharge,
2 Staff Nurses, Warden and 3 Nursery Assistants.
73