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Part of the Junior Training School was made available to the Enfield Society
for Mentally Handicapped Children for use as a play centre during the summer
holidays.
The venture was successful and will be repeated in 1966. I should like to mention
here that the co-operation of this active and enterprising society in all aspects
of the work concerned with sub-normal children is greatly appreciated.
A number of visits were paid to the school by representatives of other local
authorities and voluntary organisations during the year.
Adult Training Centres
We were fortunate to inherit the 165-place Edmonton Adult Training Centre
at Claverings Industrial Estate, at which places are reserved for trainees from the
London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey.
A feature of this purpose built centre is the large well-equipped laundry where
some 45 of the trainees are employed, handling about 8,000 articles a week from
105 local authority establishments in and surrounding Enfield. Early in the year,
the Council's laundry service for incontinent persons became part of the work of
this laundry.
The other trainees are engaged in simple assembly work.
The aim of the centre is to help the trainees, who are persons unable to undertake
ordinary employment by reason of mental subnormality, to become more
independent and to lead as full a life as possible. Factory conditions are therefore
simulated, and an allowance is made in the form of a weekly wage packet.
The Education Department supply a teacher, who holds classes to further the
educational attainments of trainees.
The Manager and his staff do a difficult job very well, and as with the Junior
Training School, the mental welfare officers provide the link with the home.
The number of trainees on the roll at the 31st December was 176.
The centre is thought to be sufficient for the Borough's future needs and no
further provision is made in the Ten-Year Plan.
Further provision is made by the employment of 20 high grade trainees working
under supervision in a local factory. The co-operation of a private firm in this
way is greatly appreciated and it is hoped to make similar arrangements with other
firms in the future.
A number of visits were paid to the Centre by representatives of other local
authorities, voluntary bodies and interested persons, some of whom came from
overseas. Delegates from Aberdeen and Dumbarton were amongst those who visited
during the year.
There is little doubt that our many visitors were favourably impressed with what
they saw.
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