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The rate of progress on the building site of the Kingsbury Junior Training School has been quite
remarkable and it would appear that the building might be taken over from the builder before the contractual
completion date. It promises to become a very attractive school, although the outside is rather drab due to
the special type of construction necessitated by the difficult site. Staff and parents are very much looking forward
to its speedy completion.
The Holiday Centre
The success of the 1967 pilot scheme was repeated when a similar "summer school" was run at
Northview Infants School this year, again during the four August weeks. Approximately twenty-five children
were selected for attendance, one important criterion being absence of gross behaviour disturbance and a fair
standard of habit training. This has, of course, limited the choice of children but was necessary as most of the
staff had little or no experience in the handling of severely subnormal children.
The school building used this year was purpose-built for the very young, yet in some respects the
children were not quite as easily contained as at Wykeham School last year. However, this minor point in no
way detracted from the great value of offering our children the facilities a purpose-built school can provide and
the ample playground was much appreciated in spite of the wet August weather.
Parents were again invited for an informal "Open Day" and practically all attended. Once more
they expressed their appreciation that their children had been given this facility. Many mentioned, in addition,
how much help the family had derived from the absence of the handicapped child from the home on certain
days when the mother had been able to devote more attention to the demands of her other children at home
on school holidays.
We are looking forward to repeating this venture next year on our own new premises at Kingsbury.
Summer Holiday Camps
Adjacent local authorities who have Brent trainees at their centres once again, on behalf of this
Borough, included them in their camp holidays arrangements, in those cases where the trainees were fit to
participate and where the parents wished them to do so. Escorts were provided by this Department and the
cost was shared by the Council and trainees or their parents on an assessed basis. Thirty-three persons had
holidays by these means. Special arrangements made for holidays for the residents of "Homelea" Hostel
including the few from other local authority areas are mentioned in the paragraph dealing with the Hostel.
Adult Training Centre
On 2nd October, 1968, loan sanction was issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government
for the building of a Health Centre in Stage III of the Stonebridge Redevelopment Scheme. Work on this Stage
commenced in October 1968 and it is anticipated that the Health Centre will be completed in June 1970. The
Council have decided that all the services now provided at Stonebridge Health Clinic, Hillside, N.W.10, will
be transferred to the new Centre and that the Stonebridge Health Clinic will be adapted and extended to
become an Adult Training Centre. The Ministry of Health indicated that subject to any adjustment which may
in future be necessitated by the economic situation or other unforseen circumstances, the Minister hopes to be
able to recommend loan sanction in 1969/70 at an estimated cost of £100,000.
The Adult Training Centre projected will accommodate 120 trainess. About eighty of these places
will be required for our mentally handicapped adults who from 1965 and since have been admitted to Acton
Lodge, Southall, Uxbridge and Brentford Adult Training Centres in the Boroughs of Hounslow, Hillingdon
and Ealing. These Boroughs have their own waiting lists and the allocation to Brent of a number of their
places under the appropriation arrangements of 1965, entrenched to 1970, are responsibilities that they will be
pleased to be able to relinquish when the Stonebridge Centre is at long last available. Although the training
position in Brent would have been critical without the allocation of these places, the arrangements have been
burdensome for the trainees themselves involving as they do long coach journeys to and from the Centres.
Plainly, therefore, it will be a great relief to all concerned when these young people can receive training in
their own Borough.
The Council made financial provision in 1968/9 for the setting up of a temporary Adult Training
Centre of 30 places to accommodate some of those on the waiting list for whom training could not be found
with other local authorities; including teen-agers who were ready to leave the Junior Training Centre and were
being accommodated in a Transition Class at St. Margaret's Church Hall, N.W.10. The long search for suitable
premises to serve the purpose, without requiring too much financial outlay, began. Several buildings were considered
including the recently vacated Brotherhood Hall, Wembley High Road, but as time passed and no
solution for the location of a temporary Centre presented itself the Council gave approval to revised proposals.
These were to utilise for a temporary Centre, the premises in Neasden due to be vacated in the early part of
1969 by the Junior Training School on its transfer to the new Kingsbury building. Taking into consideration
the capacity of the Neasden premises and a further review of actual needs, it was also decided to augment
the scheme to provide 50 places, overall financial provision to be budgetted for in 1969/70. The opening of this
temporary Adult Training Centre will go a long way to meeting a most pressing and hardfelt need and in
bridging the gap until the permanent Centre at Stonebridge is available.
Social Clubs for the Mentally Sub-normal
The two social clubs in the Borough, both operated on a voluntary basis, had another successful year.
The Brent Society for Mentally Handicapped Children is responsible for the children's "Bonanza" Club at
Tylers Croft School each Saturday afternoon, and the Parents' Association for the "Neasden Teenagers" Club
at the Junior Training School on Thursday evenings.
The Brent Society for Mentally Handicapped Children (Willesden and Wembley Areas)
The Society has continued to function according to its specific aims and I am very happy to relate
that this voluntary body and the Council's professional staff have worked intimately together on many occasions
during this year. Mental Health Week, of course, was an important occasion and here closest liaison