| Administrative History | Craigielea at Craigton Road was purchased by Aberdeen Town Council in 1952. The Reception Centre opened on 7th July 1953 and could accommodate 12 children at a time, aged between 3 and 17 years. The centre, with its own school and school teacher, was set up as a specialised service for the assessment of the needs of each child prior to being boarded-out, or where boarding-out was less viable.
The Town Council Minutes in 1955 describe the construction of a children’s home in the grounds of reception centre, to be run in conjunction with reception centre as a single administrative unit under charge of the service’s Warden and Deputy Warden.The 1956 Town Council Memorandum of Information describes the purpose of the centre as for the “assessment of the physical and mental condition of deprived children”; in 1964 its purpose is described as a “diagnostic unit”.
The school element of the centre closed in 1974.
In July 1981 the Social Work Committee took the decision to close the home. It was agreed the following October that the premises would continue to operate for a short time as a training centre and unit for the physically and mentally disabled. Currently the premises are in use as Craigielea Children's Centre, by the Alternative to Care Team and the Intensive Intervention Team. |