29th January

Stronger together

Trustees and members of Worthing Littlehampton District Scope (WLDS) have voted overwhelming in favour of joining forces with Guild Care. The vote took place on Monday 29^th January at a WLDS Extraordinary General Meeting.

Suzanne Millard, Guild Care CEO, said; “We are extremely pleased that WLDS members have agreed to this exciting opportunity which will now see the joining of our resources to make both charities much stronger together.”

Future long term benefits

Jacquie Pinney, the WLDS Chairman, said: “Guild Care is a well-respected local charity that has a long history of providing similar services within the town. We are very enthusiastic about the future long-term benefits this will now bring to our users and their families.”

WLDS was established in the 1960s and supports children and adults with a disability, especially with cerebral palsy, and their families. It runs a number of day services, a social club, two retail shops as well as providing housing. It employs around 40 people supporting hundreds of people in the local area.

Guild Care had been managing WLDS service since the beginning of March 2017 following a request by its trustees. From April 2018 WLDS will become a subsidiary and a full merger will take place within the next 12 months. 

Suzanne Millard added: “There are clear synergies between our charities. We are both well established in the town and have a loyal and committed base of users and supporters. We complement each other very well and WDLS aligns itself closely with our own Ashdown Centre which supports children and young adults with disabilities and additional needs. So by joining forces we can now develop a pathway for our young users right the way from childhood and throughout their entire life.  

“Over time a full merger will enable us to fully benefit from the sharing of all our resources and in doing so we will be delivering a truly wrap around service for local in people from 5 to 105. No services are under threat and at this point in time we are not planning for any job losses, in fact we plans to grow and develop our day services provision in the future.”

View a video of Jacquie and Suzanne speaking about the merger.

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