One of the country’s leading supported living providers, Eden Futures, has welcomed its first service user in the Northwood area of the city, its first-ever development in Stoke.
The first of seven self-contained apartments is now occupied as part of the company’s phased approach to moving in, with referrals in place for the remaining apartments as lockdown restrictions continue to relax.
Eden Futures supports adults with learning disabilities, challenging behaviour, enduring mental ill health and autism across the Midlands and the North of England. It has worked in partnership with Hilldale Housing Association to provide the new accommodation for people who may have come from a residential care home or acute hospital provision, creating 20 new jobs.
Commenting, Dave Whittock, director of service development at Eden Futures, said: “There is a strong demand for additional support in Stoke-on-Trent for those with mental ill-health needs. We have similar services in Staffordshire but this is our first service in the neighbouring authority of Stoke. We’ve worked collaboratively with our partners to meet this demand and provide support.
“The lockdown brought many significant challenges, both to the people we support and our staff and like many things it caused a small delay to opening. We need to continue building specialist supported living services to support vulnerable people in our communities, so we’re delighted to be making progress now. We look forward to launching more supported living provision in England during 2020.”
Each of the self-contained apartments has its own bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and lounge-diner – with assistive technologies and an on-site staff hub enabling Eden Futures to provide 24/7 support.
