About Us
Learn more about our values, background within the WBNA and our aims as a not-for-profit charity.
✨ Our Values
We treat everyone with fairness, dignity and respect.
📜 Background
The origins of this project begin at the West Berkshire Neurological Alliance (WBNA), which is an association of voluntary individuals and organisations “with an interest in people with a neurological condition, based in and around West Berkshire, working together to ensure that the local provision of health and related services includes fully funded neuro-rehabilitation facilities and resources appropriate to 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 who need it in the local area. In 2006 its vision took its first practical step forward when the WBNA secured grant funding for a feasibility study. This was undertaken by a local management consultancy and included a detailed market assessment with location advice, potential design issues and marketing & staffing information. It also included a financial model which demonstrated its viability. By analysing the userbases for other similar pools, it was shown that the benefits of hydrotherapy extended beyond those with purely neurological conditions to include people with arthritis, back injuries, learning difficulties, patients in a post-operation recuperative state and many others. A Project Board was established to further the cause and was 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 Newbury and the surrounding area.
The Project Board also extended the concept of a 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 as the hydrotherapy pool, providing additional benefits at modest incremental cost and would further improve the financial viability of the project. 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 in England and Wales).
✅ 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 to provide beneficial, high-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 house the two main therapy services the local community has asked us to provide: a community hydrotherapy pool and a specialist gym consisting of power-assisted exercise equipment. Everything will be designed for the benefit of people with disabilities, infirmities and other health & well-being needs.
We want to ensure that partaking in physical therapy is accessible, easy, enjoyable, affordable and beneficial - with client satisfaction always our highest priority. We fully recognise the importance of employing and retaining skilled, friendly staff & volunteers and the impact it has on our service quality.
