Work on new Day Services Hub begins

Facility at Noble's due to open in 2019

Work is now well under way on the construction of a £5 million new facility for adults with learning disabilities.

The project involves the creation of a Day Services hub within the Noble’s Hospital Estate in Braddan and is aimed at modernising the provision of Adult Social Care Services.

Health Minister Kate Beecroft recently cut the first sod at the site, after the project received Tynwald approval this July.

Mrs Beecroft says the hub will serve some of the most vulnerable members of the community. 

Day Services for people with learning disabilities are currently provided across four main sites: Eastcliffe Resource Centre in Victoria Road, Douglas; Eastcliffe Resource Industrial Centre (ERIC) at Noble’s Hospital Estate; Greenfield Garden Centre in Douglas; and Mooragh View in Ramsey.

When completed, the new facility will enable the consolidation of current services by moving activities now undertaken at Eastcliffe Resource Centre and Greenfield Garden Centre to the new site, which already accommodates Eastcliffe Resource Industrial Centre.

There are approximately 300 people on the Island with a complex learning disability, and around 85 attend Day Services on a daily basis.  

The new facility will enable the Department to bring day care facilities and current employment enterprises together at a single location where users will be able to engage in a range of activities, take up job opportunities – including in a café and shop selling garden centre produce – and receive support in modern surroundings.

Member for Adult Social Care, Clare Bettison, calls the new hub "vital" and points out it will free up existing sites for alternative uses.

The building is set to be completed in early 2019.

Developers, Cedar, have produced a video of the sitework using drone footage which can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbfkLBlaLbE