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19
As was to be expected in this comprehensive survey, Leavesden Hospital came under close scrutiny.
The professional staff there welcomed these investigations and gladly opened doors to representatives of the
press and television. It was felt that nothing but good could come of using the mass media to bring home to the
public the shortcomings in at least some of those facilities that modern management could be expected to
provide for patients. Now steps are being formulated for quite substantial improvements to take place at
Leavesden in the near future. Apart from the attention being directed to the rather bleak hospital buildings,
a rigorous policy change in regard to discharges back into the community of rehabilitated patients is being
pursued. The hospital doctors are pressing for patients to be returned to community life as soon as possible
and are also seeking to find ways and means of returning to the community long-stay patients who have
been allowed to linger on in hospital for want of somewhere else for them to go. These measures coupled
with a more stringent admission policy are aimed at the alleviation of at least some of the scandalous overcrowding
which has been accepted complacently by our society for far too long. The stricter admission
criteria, are not always easily accepted by our mental health social workers, who may be called on for lack
of a hospital bed to support quite considerable hardship cases in totally unsuitable home conditions. It is
to be hoped that more hospital placements for those in need of such will gradually become more readily
available as further hostel provision is made in Brent. It is foreseen that as progress in that direction becomes
reality ready exchanges should become possible, so that for any patient admitted to hospital for care, nursing
and training, a rehabilitated patient can be discharged to hostel accommodation.
Short term care placements in hospital were arranged as in previous years, with Leavesden as usual
catering for the largest number of such cases.
Guardianship and Informal Foster Care
It remained the position during the year that it was not necessary to make use of the Mental Health
Act provisions in regard to the placing of any person in guardianship.
Informal foster care placements for the severely subnormal with various voluntary organisations,
privately-run homes or foster parents continued on the same lines as in previous years, i.e. about 50 persons
were so placed at any one time. The position with regard to availability of such places has not noticeably
improved and it remains true that much more needs to be done by local authorities themselves in the implementation
of their powers under the Act to provide hostel accommodation for the subnormal and severely
subnormal.
This Council's one such hostel for males is referred to in the following paragraph. A hostel for 15
females estimated to cost £73,000 figures in the Capital Works Programme for 1970/71.
The usual arrangements for short term care either in hospital or elsewhere were put into effect during
the year so as to give parents some respite from the constant caring for retarded children at home, to allow
for family holidays or to meet some special situation or emergency in the family. Sixty-seven such placements
were made in hospitals and eight residentially elsewhere.
"Homelea" Hostel, 191 Willesden Lane, N.W.6
The resignation of the Superintendent and her husband unfortunately broke continuity in the care
that ideally it had been hoped to provide in this hostel for 12 subnormal working boys. Replacement of this
staff proved extremely difficult, partially due to the fact that it was felt to be unwise once more to engage a
married couple both in full time post. In a small, family type home like this it is tempting to take on parentsubstitute
staff but the arrangements for off-duty periods are very complicated as a couple invariably wish to
be away simultaneously. The appointment of a temporary superintendent helped to bridge the gap but as
several boys were discharged during the latter half of the year, no urgency was attached to filling the
vacancies and a waiting list was allowed to accrue.
Observations made elsewhere in this report regarding the recruitment and retaining of staff in residential
posts in mental after-care hostels, apply equally in hostels for subnormals. More training provisions
will have to be made available and general conditions of service must be improved. At this hostel, staff
quarters are hardly either suitable or attractive, making for additional difficulties in getting good staff. It
may well be that early financial provision must include for major structural alterations for the benefit of
staff.
Kingsbury Junior Training School
Expectations outlined in the 1968 Report regarding the future of training facilities for severely
subnormal children were only partially realised. Transfer of establishments to education authorities has not yet
taken place and the responsibility for them will rest with the health authorities a little longer than was
anticipated.
However, the new school at Kingsbury was completed by the middle of the year and officially opened
by His Worship the Mayor in November.
Within a very few weeks of the move from the old building at Neasden it became evident how much
new purpose-built and fully equipped premises affected the children advantageously. It had, of course, been
anticipated that a well-designed establishment would greatly further these children's educational achievements
but the speed with which this occurred was quite unexpected.
It had become at last possible to attract well qualified staff, not only because of the lure of a brand
new school but also because of a very much better pay structure than that which had obtained till then.
By the end of the year the new establishment appeared to have already settled into a good working
routine. It need hardly be mentioned that the parents are delighted with the many and varied educational
facilities now available to their children.