Greenacres, a specialist supported living service in South Chailey East Sussex, welcomed its first person supported, after plans to open were put on hold in March due to the pandemic.
The service is East Sussex’s and NHS England’s response to Transforming Care agenda and has undergone a complete rebuild to support people with learning disabilities and/or autism live independently in the community features six self-contained one-bedroom flats with gardens for long-term tenants and two studios for short stays.
Originally built in the 1980’s, the East Sussex County Council-owned property has been rebuilt and specially designed for those with Learning Disabilities and Autism with purpose built curved walls and modular furniture aligning with the Positive Behavioural Model of Support.
The site, managed by Inclusion Housing, will welcome people supported back to East Sussex after many had lived out of the county for decades in institutionalised settings.
Liz Donnelly, Regional Manager at Community Integrated Care commented on the opening of Greenacres: “We are thrilled to welcome the first person we will be supporting, who is just as excited as we are. Over the past few months, we have been putting the final preparations in place to be ready to open and have worked hard to recruit and train a new team of colleagues to deliver person-centred support.” It has been a fantastic partnership between ESCC, CCG and NHS England to support people to move home after many years living away from their home county.
Marc Brodie, Managing Director at Community Integrated Care said, “Our charity was founded in 1988 as one of the pioneers of the ‘Care in the Community’ agenda, with the continued aim of sup-porting people to leaving long-stay institutionalised settings to lead fuller, better lives in the community – and over 30 years on, we’re honoured to continue doing that here at Greenacres.
“As a care provider, we exist to deliver world class support so that people with care needs can live the best lives possible. The people supported at this service will be moving back into their local area to be near to their family and friends nearby for the first time in decades – we’re so honoured to be ena-bling people to come home and be part of their local community again.”
