In October 2000, St Francis’ Children’s Society (SFCS) moved into the newly completed Collis House at Woolstone – developed on one of the Milton Keynes Community Foundation’s Community Reserve Sites. The move marked the end of a three-year period of planning, fund-raising and building, and the start of a new and successful era for the Society.
St Francis’ Children’s Society is an adoption agency with a long history of successfully placing children with new families. Over the last 60 years, it has found homes and new families for over 2000 children and now provides support and counselling for families looking to adopt, birth families that have given up a child for adoption and adults and children that have been adopted – in short, anyone for whom adoption has played a significant part in their lives. The charity has a reputation for innovative work, including group services for young people, the Anancy Black Families Initiative, independent support services for birth relatives and life-long support for adoptive families. More recently it has begun to develop and deliver schools based services to help pupils, school staff and parents ovecome challenges in engaging with education.
SFCS was originally based in Northamptonshire and over time grew to occupy two offices – one in Northampton and the other in Luton. Staff were commuting many hundreds of miles each year between the two locations – an unnecessary expense for the charity. When asked about this situation, Richard Gordon, the current Director of Business Administration at the Society had this to say:
“Making the best use of resources and reducing operating costs are vital to a charity and Milton Keynes was an obvious solution to this problem. The city is at the centre of the area where the Society operates – a 50-mile radius covering parts of Northants, Bucks and Bedfordshire. In addition, neither of our existing offices were particularly adequate for our needs. For instance they had no disabled access and as a social care charity, we have to take accessibility into account – in fact the Disability Act provided considerable impetus for change at the Society during this period.”
The Society looked at several Community Reserve Sites before deciding to proceed with the plot at Woolstone: “The warmth and welcoming nature of the site was one of the reasons why the Society chose the location. We were offered two or three others but Woolstone felt like the right one. It is so tranquil and calm, perfect for an organisation involved in children’s adoption.”
After settling on Woolstone, the Society then had to raise the capital costs of the land-lease and the building itself, a considerable amount even with the 75% discount on the cost of the site offered by the Milton Keynes Community Foundation.
“Capital costs for the building and land were raised completely independently of normal donations and the fund-raising efforts of the charity, nor did the Society use any of its reserves. We managed to meet our target in just short of two years – a tremendous achievement.”
Collis House was built to blend in with the residential, almost rural surroundings of Woolstone – a sympathetic design that means Collis House more closely resembles a home rather than an office. The finished building has office space for all the staff, conference and interview rooms and a library facility for use by any of the Society’s service users. It offers full access for disabled users – with lifts and suitable toilet facilities - and has recently had a hearing loop installed in the conference room. The building was also designed with the environment in mind and has a number of features that help to keep the charity’s carbon footprint to a minimum. For example, the windows are fitted with special glass that provides the maximum amount of insulation and yet still transmits sufficient light to ensure that most of the offices are lit solely by natural light during the day.
“The facilities at Collis House help the Society to deliver our services in an outstanding manner and all the service users have been very complimentary – they often comment how warm and welcoming the building is.”
When asked if he had any advice for groups interested in developing a Community Reserve Site, Richard said:
“If you are interested in developing a site, look for an area or plot that matches your needs. Take into consideration access to the site, for clients as well as staff. Don’t rush into a decision and look at different plots - the Society looked at several but knew instinctively that Woolstone was the right one when we first viewed it. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. One of our trustees was a chartered surveyor, another a solicitor, so we already had some knowledge and skills within our own volunteers. For the areas we didn’t know too much about, the Society consulted with and brought in expertise as required, for example architects during the planning process.”
The Milton Keynes Community Foundation was very pleased to see one of the Community Reserve Sites developed in such a successful and pleasing manner. Julia Upton, Chief Executive of the Foundation said:
"St Francis’ Children’s Society were very clear about what they wanted and what they needed to achieve. They developed a robust strategy that enabled their board of trustees and staff to be very focused. This ensured they achieved a great facility from which to carry out their charitable activities, providing wonderful support to people in the local area.”
Read more on the St Francis' Children's Society website.