A pioneering day centre in Huddersfield is set to save Kirklees Council millions of pounds and also expand with a new centre in Golcar.

The Waves centre in Slaithwaite is one of the most forward-thinking organisations in the UK caring for people with special needs and is now set to start caring for disabled children aged 11 to 18 with such challenging behaviour they can’t go to any schools.

Waves has just bought Golcar Baptist Church on Chapel Lane in Golcar which needs major renovation and will then provide the extra facilities needed to expand the services Waves can offer.

In terms of the children, it will start to help youngsters needing such specialist units they are sometimes taken by taxis from Kirklees to neighbouring counties such as North Yorkshire for day care which is very expensive.

When Waves sets up its own unit for the youngsters it will bring them to the centre using its own transport which will save Kirklees a fortune.

This is all separate to the main Waves day centre which helps people aged 18 and over with learning and/or physical difficulties lead full lives with activities including performing arts, making music, baking, arts and crafts, virtual reality games, a climbing wall, walks, horticulture in the Waves garden, caring for animals and sharing what they do on social media.

Since it first opened 15 years ago Waves has gone from three founders and one member of staff caring for seven members to 160 members cared for by 180 staff in its main centre, including its own transport fleet.

The total number of members including the day centre, challenging behaviour units and assisted living is 200.

The staff’s expertise means it already has separate units which look after adults with the most challenging behaviour and takes in people from Calderdale, Bradford and Oldham, as well as Kirklees as these authorities don’t have units to cope with them. Each person has their own room in these units and some require two carers at all times.

Waves managing director Ben Wright said: “We aim to save the council millions of pounds by addressing a small but costly cohort of learners.

“Caring for children with such complex and highly challenging behaviour is costing Kirklees Council millions of pounds a year, especially as there isn’t anywhere in this area which can provide them with the highly specialist care these young people need.

“This means some are driven many miles out of the area in taxis to centres in neighbouring counties which is incredibly expensive.

“We now have plans to change that by opening a unit especially for children aged from 11 to 18 here in Huddersfield and we’ll also provide the transport which will be another huge cost saving.

“We estimate the cost to the council will be around half what it is now which will make a huge difference to their budgets.

“These places are for children with such challenging health conditions or behaviour they can’t go to mainstream or special schools so will come here with individual learning programmes specifically designed for their own special educational needs and disabilities.”

Waves is now based at two large mill units next to Huddersfield Narrow Canal in Slaithwaite. It also has specialist challenging behaviour units in Slaithwaite and Halifax along with assisted living houses in Slaithwaite and Birkby.

It needs to expand which is why Waves has bought Golcar Baptist Chapel which needs at least £80,000 spending on it to get it up and running, including a new boiler.

The sale has included the chapel’s large graveyard which is badly overgrown with trees and bushes and one of the first priorities will be to cut all this back so the graves can be properly maintained once again.

The chapel has a large downstairs open plan space where a nursery used to be along with a large stage and hall upstairs, a couple of kitchens and several rooms. There is plenty of parking space outside.

There are longer term plans to open another Waves centre in Halifax in a brand new building which would take people from Calderdale and Bradford.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.

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