Background and business case

Mayfield House Autism Centre, located in Wigan Greater Manchester, is a new 12 bed specialist accommodation centre, providing specialist services and person-centered support for adults across the autism spectrum. Opening in February 2018, it replaced the decommissioned obsolete former 24 bed Pines Hostel for people with learning disabilities, formerly located on the same site.

Discussions with Adult Social Care and representatives of Learning Disability (LD) services were held at an early stage and continued throughout the delivery of the project, to ensure the new service met the future needs of the Client group.

Local residents were consulted in summer 2015 about replacement of The Pines and after this process was completed a planning application was submitted and approved. works commenced in early September 2016.

The £2.1 million project, supported by Homes England funding, involved the construction of twelve individual apartments within one 990m2 centre, with staff accommodation, office space, a range of communal facilities, communal gardens and on site carparking.

Resident’s apartments were designed to Wigan Council’s exacting specification and to standards set in the Autism Design Guide. This included individual kitchens, baths or wet rooms, both one and two bed apartments, each having their own individual garden space for recreation and relaxation.

The facility incorporated a communal laundry, kitchens with recreation area and a sensory room that included touch sensitive walls connected to the air conditioning and interactive games projected to both the walls and floor.