Knowl Park House
Supporting people living with dementia and their carers
We're excited to share plans to replace the existing facilities that serve people living with dementia and their carers across north Kirklees.
Over the last year we have been working with social care and health professionals, the wider community, service users and their carers to listen to their thoughts which have directly helped to shape the improvement plans.
The existing service has served the community well since it was initially opened, but the existing building is no longer fit for purpose and future needs.
The newly developed site will include state-of-the-art facilities including a wellbeing zone, activity zone, a home therapy zone as well as a sensory garden.
The site will also feature the Centre for Excellence that will provide support and advice for families, professionals, and the wider community to enable more people to live in their own homes for longer. Service users will be able to maintain their independence and delay the need for more intensive and longer term residential and/or nursing care.
Timeline
Please note timelines are subject to change, these are for guidance purposes only.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Summer 2022 | Demolition and construction of new build |
| Autumn 2024 | Service returns to new premises |
The service has transferred to alternative premises in Heckmondwike (Crescent Dale) to enable continuity of service for service users and to ensure their carers continue to benefit from taking regular breaks in their caring roles.
News
Keep up to date with what is already taking shape at Knowl Park House
- Knowl Park House - Build update August 2024
- Knowl Park House - Build update June 2024
- Knowl Park House - Build update April 2024
- Knowl Park House - Build update February 2024
- Knowl Park House - Build update November 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update August 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update July 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update May 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update April 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update March 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update January 2023
- Knowl Park House - Build update December 2022
- Spades in the ground as work begins to modernise dementia day care facilities in Kirklees
- Knowl Park House - Build update Oct 2022
- Demolition begins to make way for new dementia day care facilities
- Contractor appointed to build new dementia day care facility in Kirklees
- Cabinet approves revised budget of £8.2m for dementia day care facility in Mirfield
- £11m investment for dementia day care facilities approved
Supporting information
Knowl Park House has been designed to be a modern, fit for purpose, flexible day centre. It will cater for up to 30 people living with dementia each day (currently Mon-Fri). Plans are in place to expand the service offer with potential to open the facilities on evenings and weekends to enable more people to receive support.
The new facilities will incorporate design features to give maximum flexibility and be fully inclusive. Kirklees Council have been working collaboratively with The University of Stirling Dementia Services Design Centre (DSDC) throughout to ensure the facilities incorporate dementia design principles and meet the DSDC dementia design standards.
The mix of spaces has been developed to ensure the service is accessible for all existing and new service users. It will meet the need of people living with dementia with a variety of needs including those with physical disabilities, sensory needs and mobility needs.
The new facility will continue to be run and managed by Kirklees Council and will continue to support people from across north Kirklees.
View planning application details:
The new dementia day service will include the following facilities:
- Home Therapy Zone; incorporating a homely open plan lounge, dining and kitchen area.
- Activity Zone; incorporating a large arts and crafts room.
- Wellbeing Zone; incorporating a sensory and cinema room and a spa.
Each zone will also incorporate the latest assistive technology including sensory lighting and sound systems. Ceiling tracking will also be incorporated into key areas and hygiene rooms.
Each zone will have access to the outdoor area, for example the garden next to the home therapy zone will include a greenhouse, potting shed and raised beds and the garden outside the wellbeing zone will include an exercise area and a water feature.
Rooms are connected to the private rear garden area by full length glazed windows in the extra wide corridors to ensure people are encouraged to make use of the improved outdoor area for outdoor sensory experiences and to improve their wellbeing.
Outdoor space will incorporate more outdoor lighting, improved pathways, plenty of seating, a gazebo, a garden pod, an outside AWC and will incorporate handrails throughout.
Knowl Park House has been designed to meet the needs of new and existing service users.
The new facilities will incorporate improvements to the environment to improve accessibility, for example, improvements to enhance lighting levels, improvements to signage to aid way finding, improvements to acoustics and improvements to ensure different surfaces have improvements to contrast.
The spaces have been designed to ensure they give maximum flexibility and so they can be adapted to meet future needs relatively easily should trends and demands change.