00:01Lifelong Ability Northeast, or Lane, marks its official opening and walls end in March.
00:06The charity provides stay services for adults with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and autism
00:11with a focus on helping clients develop practical transferable skills that can be used in everyday life.
00:17We set up because we felt there was a gap for a lot of young adults
00:23who didn't quite fit a certain criteria of potentially having too much behavioural problems.
00:30To then also not being classed as what is PMLD.
00:34And there was a gap of those guys in the middle that were just being missed.
00:38We opened up for them to get into employability.
00:41And I could see that there was people leaving from, as I say, education, where I was going into social
00:47care.
00:48And you were seeing, I don't know how to word it, not going backwards,
00:53but like a regression almost around because therapy wasn't happening or you get a lot of things in education
00:58that you don't get in social care.
01:00And I just got to a point after a few years of seeing that, that I couldn't watch that happen
01:05anymore.
01:06And we've, yeah, we've just blossomed from there, from being me for a year on my own to now 13
01:11members of staff and employing more.
01:13So I think one of the biggest issues that our clients face is when they lose the EHC,
01:19which is an education and healthcare plan, when they lose that and leave education
01:22and they come to someone like ourselves who are social care funded or health funded through ICB.
01:28A lot of those guys will almost overnight lose the physiotherapy funding, for example.
01:35So they'll get it included with education.
01:38When it becomes a social care package, it completely changes.
01:42And that physiotherapy is now gone.
01:44It's a real issue for not even just the people that come to Lane,
01:49the people that access all of the other services probably nationally.
01:53It's a big issue that they lose that and it all comes down to funding, which is a shame.
01:59It really is.
02:00So we're hoping that after the opening that we can, we can bring more,
02:05open up for more facilities to the wider public.
02:07So we've got our own gym here, for example, we access that day to day.
02:11We don't use it as a gym for clients to just use for their skill development.
02:16We use that as a sort of a stepping stone to moving into a public gym and being again in
02:21a real world scenario.
02:21But just opening up the facilities that we do have and ideally expanding on that as well.
02:28We're looking at, as I said earlier, funding for a bus,
02:30potentially funding for a cycling trampoline so we can have rebound room.
02:34That would be ideal.
02:35But of course, like anything else, it takes money coming in.
02:38So I think from the opening, I think that exposure will open us up the funding stream.
02:44Organisers say the official opening marks an important step in expanding support for adults
02:48with additional needs in the area.
02:50The charity hopes the new chapter will strengthen its work within the community
02:55and encourage wider awareness of the services it provides.
02:58So let's see.
02:58Let's see.
02:58Let's see.
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