In Pictures: Day centre for learning adults in Peterborough transformed with new theatre, media room, art studio, and beauty salon

A day service for adults with learning and associated disabilities in Peterborough has undergone an exciting transformation.

Fenlake, one of three centres created and run by The Helping Hands Group, opened in Fengate in 2020.

To mark the centre’s fifth anniversary, group founder Neil Gilby wanted to transform it “to create sessions, opportunities and rooms you are unlikely to see in any standard day centre”.

So his team developed various new facilities, including a theatre, media room, beauty salon and arts studio.

“We have always been a service that looks at doing more” he explains. “We have 42 individuals who attend Fenlake and 98 across the service, so it’s important that we work closely with families and ultimately listen to the needs and wants of our individuals.

“A huge area of interest within the service is ‘Enterprise and Arts’ so we took over a small unit across the road from our Fenlake centre to house solely those areas, and thus ‘Studio 8’ was born. This is a building dedicated to art, ceramics and upcycling.”

By doing this, Fenlake was able to free up areas within the building that could be completely transformed.

The management team of Andrew Littledyke (Centre Manager) and Nadine Hagon (Deputy Centre Manager) set to work in creating an environment that they say “you will struggle to find in any LD Day Centre anywhere in the country”. They started by turning a woodwork room into a functional black-out theatre, giving the performing arts group an area to thrive. This group has now been given the opportunity to perform an end-of-year show on the city’s Key Theatre stage in November.

Next, they set about creating a media room. Andy Littledyke explained: “At Fenlake, we are all for giving our individuals a voice, and we need to match the importance of that in the platforms in which they can be heard.

"Our new media room is equipped with state-of-the-art podcasting equipment, sound recording equipment and we even have a recording booth for those who don’t like an audience. In this room we have weekly podcasts being created which can be streamed on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, songs/music are being created from scratch, and we even have one individual who has released their first audio book, which is one hell of an achievement and has proven a massive success!”

Finally the team got to work on turning a former staff room inside the centre into a fully-functional beauty salon.

Nadine Hagon explained: “One real demand from the ladies who access the service was to learn some beauty tips, nails, hairstyles, makeup. So we turned what was a boring old staff room into a high street beauty salon, the outside looks like a shop front and inside is full of indulgence and calming cosmetics. The creation of ‘The Beauty Box’ also turns its hand as work experience. Individuals take it in turn to do shifts, they wear a Beaty Box uniform and other individuals book in for treatments.”

The Helping Hands Group, which has two other centres, located in Peterborough and Wisbech, have just celebrated its 14th birthday. Husband and wife founders Suzanne and Neil Gilby, who combined have over 50 years experience in the industry, have been working hard to improve the city’s provision for those with learning difficulties.

Suzanne added: “The beauty about being an independent family-run organisation, is that we are able to make the changes the individuals are calling for. Society expects us all to fit into a certain box and that just isn’t reality, we need to adapt, we need to evolve and we need to offer opportunities that push independence. We all know that when learning through doing things we enjoy it doesn’t feel like work, it’s less of a struggle, and at The Helping Hands Group that’s what we are all about, our centres really are like stepping into a world of pure imagination.”

More information on The Helping Hands Group can be found through their website.