A new £4m centre will be home to an art gallery, outdoor play area, cafe and more when it opens in Birkenhead.
The Joy wellbeing centre was praised by Wirral Council leader Janette Williamson as part of wider plans to regenerate Birkenhead. Based at the site will be mental health and clinic support services as well as green spaces, an art gallery, outdoor play area and performance space as well as meeting rooms and a cafe.
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Councillors were reviewing the progress on a £25m grant for Birkenhead from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The bid was successful in July 2021 with the money agreed to go towards a number of projects later that year.
These projects included improving the waterfront for walking and cycling around Woodside, Hamilton Square, and the Woodside Ferry Village. Wirral Met College is also involved in creating an “education engagement network” that will bring together a number of community groups as well as a new visitor attraction in Dock Branch Park.
The Joy scheme will cost just under £4m, which has already been secured but £850,000 in funding will still need to be found for fitting out the cafe, bar and venue as well as garden and green spaces. The scheme is being led by the Open Door charity.
Services like midwives, sexual health advice, and debt management will be available with the new centre located in the old Treasury Annexe building on Cleveland Street with the idea of bringing together “health, arts, and culture.”
Below in the basement will also be a 500-person venue for concerns and conference events as well as a bar. The designs will keep the old decor of the building, with the Barbican in London serving as inspiration.
The project will involve Wirral Council and different NHS trusts and a report by Open Door claimed the scheme could save the NHS more than £4,000 per person through the health services offered every year.
Cllr Williamson thanked those working on the scheme, adding “as someone who was born in Birkenhead and still lives there, it’s just an absolute joy to see that part of Birkenhead and what’s happening to it.”
She said: “It just absolutely highlights the community drive approach when we move something like health and wellbeing from clinical settings and put it back into the community. I am absolutely bowled over by this.”
The projects funded by the Town Deal have to be delivered by March 2026 with some projects having already started. Construction on Joy will begin in early 2024 with the building finished by the summer of 2024.
Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust will support the project’s development “maintain momentum and health teams’ input through engagement.”
Councillors also discussed the work being done by Involve NorthWest to help those out of work get into employment with an 87% sustainability rate. Involve NorthWest said that more and more people were coming to the service looking for second jobs due to the rising cost of living.
They also said they had many former carers coming to them after looking after family members during the Covid-19 pandemic. NHS representatives, Involve NorthWest and councillors said this was a possible area of collaboration as shortages remain a big issue in the care sector..
Justine Molyneux, the CEO of Involve, said she was happy to help, adding, “that’s been an increasing trend over the last six months” but a barrier was people’s “own confidence because they’ve known no different. It’s just taking that step and then their whole life changes.”
Councillors also discussed the introduction of new integrated care systems which will join up services across Cheshire and Merseyside as part of plans passed by the government earlier this year. A public meeting will be held at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton on January 26.
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