A £4.9 MILLION centre to support adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs in Mold is on-course to open in mid May.
Coed y Ddraig will bring together and expand services currently offered by Hft – formerly the Home Farm Trust – at Tri Ffordd in Bretton and Growing Places in Shotton. It will offer support for up to 80 people at the site on Maes Gwern and help create employment opportunities for service users.
It will also provide the opportunity for Hft to develop a bespoke autism service.
Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet was given a progress update on the facility on Tuesday. Initially intended to open on April 8 this year, poor weather over the winter forced contractors MPH Construction to push the completion date back by just over a month.
Coed y Ddraig has been jointly funded with £2.7m from Flintshire County Council’s Capital programme and £2.993m from the Welsh Government’s Health and Social Care Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund (IRCF).
It is anticipated not all the funds provided by the council will be spent – with the IRCF covering 60% of the cost and Flintshire responsible for 40%.
The facility will save Flintshire an estimated £2.7 million per year by reducing how much the authority spends on out-of-county placements for adults with complex needs.
“This is an exciting opportunity to improve and expand Flintshire’s work opportunity services,” said the council’s deputy leader and Cabinet Member for Social Services and Wellbeing Cllr Christine Jones.
“We have a growing number of adults of working age with learning disability, autism and mental health support needs,” added Craig Macleod, Flintshire’s Chief Officer for Social Services.
“This development will provide modern, meaningful work opportunities and will future-proof our offer to that growing need.”
In partnership with the local authority, Hft delivers day services and work opportunities for adults with profound or complex learning disabilities through horticulturally-based activities.
Hft service users put their skills to use in a number of ways. They have previously grown and arranged flowers for Flintshire town centre’s to display for Wales in Bloom, supplied flowers for agricultural shows and produced festive wreaths.
They have also learned skills like woodworking through projects like building bug hotels and motivational plaques with recycled pallet wood. Coed y Ddraig will allow the service to improve delivery of practical activities and skills like this and expand to offer more.
That programme of activities and services will increase at Coed y Ddraig and there will also be an on-site cafe operated by service users – further supporting them to enter the world of work.
Day-to-day Coed y Ddraig will be operated by Hft, with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board also operating services from the centre including Physiotherapy, Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy and the Education Programme for Patients (EPP), a peer led programme for individuals living with chronic conditions.
