History of Headway Luton

Headway Luton

Around 1990 a group of local people came together with a common interest of trying to find support for their loved one or friend who had an acquired brain injury. There were no specific local services for people with an ABI, but the group joined Headway – the brain injury association for information, advice and support for their cause.

After lobbying the NHS and social services they eventually received a small grant to employ a part time charity development worker in 1993, who then raised additional funding for a full time community support worker in 1995.

Headway South Bedfordshire, as we were then named, became a registered charity in 1997 with a pro-active board of trustees which included the original founders.

Joint contract funding from the NHS and Luton Borough Council enabled Headway to rent an office at the Disability Resource Centre and run a day centre at the Methodist Church hall in Hightown for two days per week, while demand for services continually increased.

Headway became a company limited by guarantee in 2000 and secured sufficient funding to buy a small run-down townhouse in Cardiff Road, which with a lot of hard work and building improvements became our operational base, five days per week. Headway then employed a Chief Executive to develop the services and increase the charity’s income.

By 2007 the staff team had increased to five employees, including a new Centre Manager and Deputy to manage a growing number of volunteers and tutors supplied by the local FE college, Barnfield, to deliver a range of courses as well as the increasing care needs of individual clients in a full and busy day centre. To increase our service capacity to meet these demands we also opened a satellite centre in Luton at the Salvation Army Church that had better access for clients with mobility problems and a café area for improved lunch choices.

In 2008 our charity title of Headway South Bedfordshire was changed to Headway Luton following the county area name change to Central Bedfordshire and to more accurately reflect the focal point of our services, although we continued to provide support for people throughout our area. At the same time we also removed our service upper age limit. These changes were approved by the board of trustees, the Headway general membership and the Charity Commission.

Increasing service demands outside of Luton led to our opening of a day centre branch in Leighton Buzzard, initially in a scout hall but then moving to a modern facility for one day a week, while we searched for a larger property in Luton to relocate to. Every year demands for Headway services grew and with our success the health and social care professional recognition and support for our work also grew. This professional recognition was vital in our service development, especially as the recession started to affect public spending and austerity measures were applied.

Unfortunately with the recession came a freeze in the commercial property market and suitable properties were difficult to find. After much searching we finally found a new home in the centre of Luton that would meet all our needs, albeit needing considerable refurbishment and improvements to access. We moved to our present premises in Alma Street in 2012 and began improvements immediately while still providing a full program of services.
We sold our premises at Cardiff Road and secured an affordable mortgage directly with the vendor of our new home, taking full advantage of low interest rates, before investing in significant improvements to our four storey building.

By 2018 we had successfully paid off the mortgage and now own the freehold to our secure home in the heart of Luton which has the capacity to fulfill all our service developments. Our staff team has now increased to eighteen and we support over 250 clients, plus their families and carers throughout Luton and Central Beds.

The history of Headway Luton is a proud record of our achievement but none of it would have been possible without the continued financial support of Luton Council, NHS BLMK ICB, Central Beds Council, fundraisers and the support of so many clients and their families.