About West Berkshire Therapy Centre

Aims

Our broad aim is to understand the currently unmet health and well-being needs of the local community and to identify opportunities where we, as part of the ‘not-for-profit’ sector, can fill some of those gaps and provide helpful, much needed, good quality services.

Our more immediate aim is to pull together, with the help of the local community, the resources needed to acquire enough land and to construct the building needed to provide the two main therapy services which the local community has asked us to provide. Initially, our facilities will house a community hydrotherapy pool and a specialist gym equipped with power-assisted machines. Everything will be designed for the benefit of people with disabilities, infirmities or other health and well-being needs.

Once open, we aim to ensure that taking therapy will be accessible, easy, enjoyable, affordable and beneficial, with customer satisfaction always our highest priority. We fully recognise the importance of employing and retaining skilled and friendly staff and volunteers. We are confident in our aim of securing a sustainable enterprise and enduring community asset.

History and Current Status

The origins of this project lie in the West Berkshire Neurological Alliance (WBNA), which is an association of voluntary organisations and individuals “with an interest in people with a neurological condition, based in and around Berkshire West, working together to ensure that the local provision of health and related services includes fully funded neuro-rehabilitation facilities and resources appropriate to and serving the needs of all”.

Inspired by examples of advanced therapies elsewhere in the country, the WBNA has long seen the need for a hydrotherapy pool available to those which it helps, in West Berkshire. In 2006 its vision took a first practical step forward when the WBNA secured grant funding for a feasibility study, which was undertaken by a local management consultancy. It included a detailed market assessment, advised on location, design issues, marketing and staffing, and included a financial model which demonstrated its viability. Further, by analysing the user bases for other similar pools, it was shown that the benefits of hydrotherapy extended to well beyond those with neurological conditions, to also include people with arthritis and back injuries, learning difficulties, patients in post-operative recuperation and many others.

A Project Board was established to further the cause and we were successful in securing the support of the Greenham Common Trust, which is one of the most important grant providers and sources of charitable funds in the Newbury and surrounding areas. The Project Board also extended the concept of the hydrotherapy pool towards that of a Therapy Centre with additional facilities, notably a gym equipped with power-assisted exercise equipment. A second feasibility study showed that a Power-Assisted Exercise Gym (PAEG) would address largely the same groups of users, providing additional benefits at a modest incremental cost and further improving the financial viability of the project..

Negotiations were initiated with the Primary Care Trust, which controlled the West Berkshire Community Hospital, to build the Therapy Centre on spare land adjacent to the main hospital. Unfortunately, after a lengthy period, this plan foundered and a new site was sought. After a broad search, we were fortunate in securing the interest and generous co-operation of a local developer, Rivar Ltd, which has substantial land in and around the Greenham area. We are now moving towards an application for planning permission.

Meanwhile, the Project Board was strengthened and evolved into a Board of Trustees of the Berkshire Health and Well-being Social Enterprises (BHWBSE), a charitable company limited by guarantee (Registered Number 6988472, England and Wales).

The Board of Trustees

During this present planning phase we have a strong Board including a retired chief executive, an experienced finance director, a retired solicitor, a management consultant, a nursing director and the liaison officer for the West Berkshire Neurological Alliance. This group is deeply involved in business planning, fund raising, the preparation of a design specification, liaising with a wide range of stakeholders and a myriad range of other issues needing to be addressed to see the project to fruition.

Additionally we are grateful to have the services of a retired accountant who acts as treasurer and of a practising architect who provides us client-side advice in liaising with the retained architect, structural engineer, M&E consultant, planning consultant, etc.

As we move into the implementation and operational phases the Board is expected to increase in numbers and change in composition to reflect the new skills which will be required. Additionally, we would welcome participation by representatives of organisations which will have a major stake in the therapy centre - either financially or in the provision of a substantial number of users.

Benefactors and Supporters

Benefactors to date include:

Greenham Common Trust
Englefield Trust

We also thank many others who have provided financial and other support.

Stakeholders who have agreed in principle to become shareholders in the social enterprise are:

Age Concern Berkshire
Alzheimer’s Society, West Berkshire
Berkshire MS Therapy Centre
Friends of the Charles Clore Unit
Injured Jockeys Fund
Motor Neurone Disease Association
Newbury & District MS Society
Newbury Athletics Club
Parkinson’s Disease Society, Newbury & District
Stroke Care, Newbury & West Berkshire
Thames Valley Vikings
West Berkshire Disability Alliance
West Berkshire ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Group
West Berkshire Mencap
West Berkshire Neurological Alliance

In addition, we have letters of support from:

26 consultant physicians and specialist registrars, covering nine disciplines, at Royal Berkshire Hospital Foundation Trust
Newbury College
Richard Benyon MP
Patient Doctor Action Group, Thatcham Medical Practice
West Berkshire Citizen Advocacy Service
Community Action, West Berkshire
NHS Berkshire West

Latest News...

November 2010: Patron.Professor Christine Collin MBBS Hons FRCP, who is president of the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians, has a agreed to become a patron of the Therapy Centre. Professor Collin's agreement to lend her further support to the project is testimony to the value which the West Berkshire medical community puts on this project. We look forward to her guidance.

April 2010: Appointment of new director We are please to announce the appointment of John Tew as Director. John's main career was spent with Royal Mail, reaching the position of Director and General Manager (DGM). As DGM he was responsible for multi-billion pounds revenues. He has wide experience of negotiation with large corporations and dealing with lobby groups, as well as management of large staff numbers. He has also represented Royal Mail on worldwide stages presenting the background to Royal Mail's successes during the 1990s. In 1999 he left to pursue other Business interests that have included the acquisition of businesses in the area of Data and Print. He has been active in incorporating these purchases into a successful 'Transactional Print' organisation that currently has a turnover of in excess of £12m per annum.

West Berkshire Therapy Center Planned Developments

Find out more about our planned site in Greenham, West Berkshire.