12 February 2021

We’ve been working with Making Space to develop a service called The Academy that will offer short-term supported accommodation for up to four weeks for patients who may benefit from step up/step down mental health support.

The aim of the service is to support the patient recovery for those who are assessed as may be requiring an inpatient bed in Halton, Knowsley, St Helens and Warrington or those patients who may benefit from this support on discharge from one of our inpatient settings.  

The accommodation is six apartments managed by Making Space in Cromwell Wing at the Academy in Warrington and offers a safe and secure housing environment where they will have a named key worker and access to non-medical alternatives for their mental healthcare.

Who can refer?

Mental health practitioners working in the following Halton, Knowsley, Warrington or St Helens services:

  • Home treatment teams
  • Mental health inpatient wards
  • Crisis line.  

Referral criteria

To access support from the service, the service user must be:

  • Be aged 18 or over
  • Be appropriate for a time-limited supported accommodation service
  • Require immediate, unplanned support
  • Have other accommodation to return/move on to which would be available to them at the end of the four weeks maximum stay  (unless agreed otherwise)
  • Be willing to engage with the support on offer
  • Present with a level of risk that is suitable to be managed within a community-based, non-medical  setting

Note: this setting will not be appropriate for anyone who is:

  • detained under the Mental Health Act
  • dependent on drugs or alcohol

How to refer

Our Knowsley Home Treatment Team will act as the gatekeepers to this service. From Monday 15 February, if you have a patient who you think would be suitable for support from Making Space, please contact the team Monday to Sunday, 9am to 8pm to discuss suitability on Tel: 0151 290 4999

View the referral flowchart here. 

Related documents

You can find more information about the service in the documents below: