Inspire Social Care Services members hub to open in St John’s Street, Bury St Edmunds, on April 7

A new social care hub which is ‘desperately needed’ in a town is preparing to open its doors to help support adults in the community with additional needs.

Inspire Social Care Services, which is based in Newmarket, held an open day today at its new location at 30 St John’s Street in Bury St Edmunds, ahead of its official opening on April 7.

The building will act as a social hub for people to relax, play games and socialise in a safe space supervised by staff, with efforts made to get attendees into employment where possible.

Clare Devereux, a senior support worker and manager of the hub, said: “We are so proud and excited to be opening the new members hub.

“We feel Bury is in desperate need of a day service like this that provides a safe space for adults with additional needs to socialise and learn new skills.

“This is something we have wanted to do for a while as we have been aware of the need for it and we are so pleased to have the opportunity to provide this service.”

There used to be a social club for adults with additional needs in Bury but it closed several years ago.

The new community hub will be open from Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm.

Members of the hub will benefit from life skills support, social inclusion and access to various facilities, with a pool table, table tennis table, a gaming set up, and more available.

Members can also use a Tiny Tablet - a touch screen activity table for care and adult education settings that can be rotated and tilted.

Clare, who lives in Sturmer, near Haverhill, said: “Nothing opened to replace the social club for adults with additional needs that closed down and many of the people who went there still miss it.

“We really hope this hub will have a positive impact and will be a place for people to connect, learn, socialise and engage in their community.

“We will be totally person-centred and want to meet the needs of the individuals, whether they just want to relax and socialise or perhaps want to learn new skills or find employment.

“We are already forming working relationships with other local businesses and projects to work collaboratively in order to meet the needs of our members to offer them assistance and support in any areas we can to help them achieve their goals.”

Lyndsey Bucknell, owner of Inspire Social Care Services, added: “Clare came to me and explained that she felt there was a need for a day service in Bury St Edmunds.

“After explaining why she felt like this and I understood the amount of people that would benefit from the service, we decided to look into it further.

“At this point I felt that Clare would be the perfect person to drive this service forward and she would put all her strengths and knowledge to use.”