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Play Centre
The Junior Training School being closed for re-decoration during the summer
holiday, Chase Primary School was made available by the Education Committee
to the Enfield Society for Mentally Handicapped Children for use as a play centre
for four weeks, during the month of August, on every Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday. The society provided the necessary transport and some 10 voluntary
workers each day to supervise the children. The council provided mid-day meals.
The average daily attendance was 29. Once again, this project proved to be most
useful and several parents were thus provided with relief from the constant care
of their children, for a number of hours each day.
I should like to take this opportunity of acknowledging the valuable work that
the society has continued to undertake on behalf of the handicapped children. Their
enterprise and co-operation is greatly appreciated.
Adult Training Centre
The Edmonton Adult Training Centre at Claverings Industrial Estate, run on
lines similar to an ordinary factory, has accommodation for 165 trainees over the
age of 16 years, who are paid a weekly allowance. A proportion of places is reserved
for trainees from the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey.
The aim of this purpose-built centre is to train mentally subnormal persons to
become as independent and to lead as full a life as is possible. Some trainees are
engaged on assembly work sent to the centre by local firms while others work in
the fully equipped laundry section. The latter handles approximately 8,000 to
9,000 articles of clothing and linen each week collected from 98 different establishments.
A recent extension of the laundry work is the daily " nappy service"
provided for a residential nursery run by an adjoining local authority. Approximately
500 to 600 nappies are laundered per week. The laundry service for incontinent
persons provided by the council without charge is also undertaken at the
centre.
I am pleased to report that during the year, the Education Department was
able to supply two part-time visiting teachers who provided formal education to
a total of 16 hours per week. Nearly all trainees have benefited from this resumed
service.
The scheme in which 20 selected trainees work in a local factory under supervision
continues to be successful. Two of these trainees were successfully absorbed
into the factory's routine and are working as full-time employees, bringing the
total placed in open employment to six since the scheme started in 1964.
A highly successful enterprise is the garden maintenance contract with a local
firm obtained in 1966. The work is undertaken by a group of trainees under supervision
of an instructor. I am pleased to report again this year that the company
has expressed satisfaction with the work done.
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