introduction

This document is about Accessibility Gloucestershire and the possibility of opening a pilot project in the centre of Gloucester.

who are accessibility gloucestershire?

Formed about two years ago, and registered as a charity last year, Accessibility Gloucestershire has, as its long-term aim, to develop several ‘focus centres’ for people with disability around the county of Gloucestershire.

These centres will offer a wide range of services (provided by statutory and voluntary organisations) for people with disabilities under one roof.

Accessibility Gloucestershire role will be as ‘landlord’ and providing common services to help individual service providers to provide services that local people with disabilities need.

Initially, it was thought that the first of these centres would be a re-development of the current premises occupied by Shopmobility in Hampden Way. The cost of this project, estimated at£772,000, has been difficult to raise without demonstrating a need for the services that would be delivered.

For those who don’t know Gloucester Shopmobility, it currently is housed in several potakabins in Hampden Way:

It’s near the heart of Gloucester city centre, as shown below:

what’s now proposed

Since we need to demonstrate a need, what better way than to start a pilot project? Then, we can say that ‘X’ people used the service, ‘Y’ of whom would not have got the assistance they needed had we not been there.

So, what’s proposed is just that – a pilot project. We intend to deliver a similar range of services, albeit on a smaller scale[1], as will be delivered at the permanent focus centre.

WHAT SORT OF PREMISES?

Ideally, we need a property that is ready to move into with minimum refurbishment. Although, we realise that we may need to modify it to make it more accessible to people with disabilities.

It must be ground floor with level access from the street to encourage people to drop in.

Being close to our eventual home offers many advantages:

· We can offer our services to Shopmobility users

· We can accurately gauge how many users come to this area of Gloucester

· Users will know where we are

· And, when the focus centre is being built, we will have a local presence

whO will be there?

We are currently negotiating with several service providers. Details will be added when they are available.

We’ve had interest from:

· GUiDE Information Service (a statutory service providing advice for people with disabilities) to deliver advice sessions run with a combination of volunteers and paid staff from GUiDE..

In addition, we expect to provide:

· Social/waiting space for people with disabilities and, particularly, for Shopmobility and DialaRide customers.

· Meeting room available to hire by small local groups of disabled people.

· Office space for Accessibility Gloucestershire and other groups.

· Some level of retail service selling small equipment (due to the limited space) but with other equipment available if ordered.

To assess the level of need for meeting facilities, we had a meeting last year attended by representatives from about twenty organisations, all of whom indicated an interest in using the focus centre. As soon as we know that the pilot will be going ahead, we’ll approach these groups again.

what we need…

Below, we present several sets of figures:

· A total project budget for the expected three year life of the project

· A budget for the first year

· An ‘interim’ budget to fund just the startup costs

Of course, going ahead just with funding for the first year or to cover the startup costs will require immediate and intensive fundraising efforts to ensure continuity of funding.

You may notice that there is no rental income from tenants. It would be our intention to raise some rental income from statutory tenants and ask for donations from voluntary bodies. However, these sources are unlikely to be material[2].

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Total
	£	£	£	£
Capital
Partitions	5,000			5,000
Professional Fees	2,500			2,500
Office Equipment	4,000			4,000
Furniture	9,000			9,000

Revenue
Salary (1 full time) + on cost	25,800	26,575	27,375	79,750
General Running Expenses	4,600	4,750	4,900	14,250
Promotional Material	3,000	3,000	3,000	9,000
Training for staff and volunteers	1,000	1,000	1,000	3,000
Recruitment costs	1,500	0	0	1,500
Travel	1,000	1,000	1,000	3,000
Rent	8,000	8,500	8,850	25,350
Rates	2,100	2,200	2,400	6,700
Lighting and heating	2,500	2,700	3,000	8,200

Total	70,000	49,725	51,525	171,250

table 1 – three year figures

	Year 1	Total
	£	£
Capital
Partitions	5,000	5,000
Professional Fees	2,500	2,500
Office Equipment	4,000	4,000
Furniture	9,000	9,000

Revenue
Salary (1 full time) + on cost	25,800	25,800
General Running Expenses	4,600	4,600
Promotional Material	3,000	3,000
Training for staff and volunteers	1,000	1,000
Recruitment costs	1,500	1,500
Travel	1,000	1,000
Rent	8,000	8,000
Rates	2,100	2,100
Lighting and heating	2,500	2,500

Total	70,000	70,000

(assumes that funding can be found to cover the 3 year lease)

Table 2 – one year figures

	Year 1	Total
	£	£
Capital
Partitions	0	0
Professional Fees	2,500	2,500
Office Equipment	4,000	4,000
Furniture	1,000	1,000

Revenue
Salary (1 full time) + on cost	12,900	12,900
General Running Expenses	1,150	1,150
Promotional Material	500	500
Training for staff and volunteers	250	250
Recruitment costs	500	500
Travel	250	250
Rent	2,000	2,000
Rates	525	525
Lighting and heating	625	625

Total	26,200	26,200

(assumes that furniture can be borrowed from the Recycling Project)
(assumes that the project woker stays for 6 months)
(assumes that funding can be found to cover the 3 year lease)

table 3 – startup costs

[1] Possibly, just having some services available for only part of the week

[2] Particularly as there is a large deficit facing Gloucestershire County Council this year.