In September, One Trust opened the doors to Point Pleasant, our new specialist Positive Behaviour Support service in Wandsworth. It is an important moment for our charity, but more importantly, it creates something that has been badly needed for a long time: more high-quality local provision for adults whose needs can make finding the right support incredibly difficult.
Point Pleasant is based at 22a Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, SW18 1GG. The building provides around 3,300 square feet of bright, flexible space, with seven different areas including sensory, art, music and activity rooms, together with quieter breakout spaces where people can regulate, recover or simply spend time away from a busy environment.
It has deliberately been designed not to feel like an institution. We want it to feel welcoming, interesting and alive.
Point Pleasant is for autistic adults and people with learning disabilities who benefit from Positive Behaviour Support, including people who may experience behaviours of distress and who have sometimes struggled to access conventional day services.
Our starting point is never the behaviour. It is the person.
We try to understand what someone is communicating, what makes them feel safe, what they enjoy, what causes anxiety or distress and what will give their life greater meaning. Positive Behaviour Support is about building a good life around somebody, rather than simply trying to manage difficult moments when things go wrong.
That means communication, relationships, choice, consistency and meaningful activity are at the heart of the service.
A day at Point Pleasant might involve art or music, cycling, swimming, walking, bowling, preparing food, developing everyday living skills, visiting a café, going shopping or simply discovering an activity someone genuinely enjoys. For some people, success may mean becoming more confident in the community. For another, it might be making a choice, tolerating a new environment, developing a relationship or learning to communicate that they need a break.
There is no single version of a successful day.
That philosophy matters because some of the people now attending Point Pleasant had previously been spending much of their time at home because an appropriate local service simply was not available. For them and their families, finding the right provision can be transformational.
Two specialist services, one One Trust
Opening Point Pleasant has also enabled us to make an equally important change at our established Light Bulb service.
The Light Bulb is now dedicated to adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities, or PMLD.
This distinction is important.
People with PMLD may require extensive personal care, specialist moving and handling, hoisting, postural support, physiotherapy, support with dysphagia and nutrition, PEG feeding, epilepsy management and other health-related interventions. The Light Bulb has the environment, equipment and expertise to deliver this alongside sensory experiences, art, music, communication, therapy and meaningful activity.
Point Pleasant has a different emphasis. Its environment and programme have been developed around Positive Behaviour Support, communication, sensory regulation, autonomy, everyday skills, community participation and reducing behaviours of distress by improving people’s quality of life.
Neither group deserves a watered-down compromise.
By creating two distinct specialist services, we can develop the workforce, environment, leadership, equipment and programme around the people using each service. At the same time, both services benefit from the wider expertise of One Trust, including quality assurance, safeguarding, therapies, transport, family liaison, arts, music and community partnerships.
It gives us the best of both worlds: genuine specialism without losing the strength of being one organisation.
Meeting a growing need
The demand tells its own story.
Our specialist provision has grown significantly and we continue to receive enquiries and referrals from families, social workers, health professionals and commissioners looking for placements for people whose needs cannot always be met elsewhere.
Our latest management information records an increase from 24 to 31 full-time-equivalent places, an interest list of 35 people and 21 people actively pursuing a placement.
We are pleased that people want to come to One Trust, but growth for its own sake has never been our objective. We will only expand at a pace that allows us to recruit the right people, understand each new person properly and protect the quality of support already being provided.
For this group of adults, continuity and expertise matter enormously.
A service for south west London and beyond
Although our home is Wandsworth, One Trust has increasingly become a resource for a much wider part of London and the surrounding area.
Our commissioning relationships include Lambeth, Merton, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and NHS South West London Integrated Care Board. We also support people through funding arrangements involving Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham, while referrals and enquiries have reached us from Croydon and Surrey.
That breadth matters.
It demonstrates both the shortage of suitable specialist provision and the confidence that families and professionals increasingly place in One Trust.
Our ambition is to be the first choice for specialist day provision in south west London.
We believe what makes One Trust different is the combination of things we offer. Specialist environments. Skilled and increasingly specialised staff. Physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. Art and music. Accessible transport. Community activities. Positive Behaviour Support. Close relationships with families. Strong safeguarding and quality assurance. Above all, a determination to see the person rather than the diagnosis.
We are ambitious for the people we support.
A person with profound disabilities should not spend their life simply being cared for. An autistic person whose distress can be difficult to understand should not be excluded from ordinary life because supporting them requires more thought, skill or patience.
They should have friendships, interests, experiences, choices, opportunities and a reason to look forward to tomorrow.
That is what we want The Light Bulb and Point Pleasant to provide.
Two specialist services, built around very different needs, united by one simple belief: everyone deserves the opportunity to realise the life they want to live.
