Enter and view: The Learning Centre, Romford

Healthwatch Havering revisited The Learning Centre, approximately a year after the first visit to review whether the one recommendation made in the first visit was acted upon or not. HW havering was delighted to see that the recommendation to replace the carpets on the ground floor with solid flooring having a non-slip finish, in the light of the fact that cooking and other activities could create spillages that were more easily cleaned from a hard surface, had been put into place. All ground floor areas had nonslip floor finishes and the team were informed that the floor was cleaned professionally twice a week to ensure it remained in good condition.

In addition to this there were several stimulating and calm activities going on including cooking; coffee cake and Welsh soda bread baking; wi-fi-based 10-pin bowling, and some service users were collecting together their models, painting etc. from the previous year in order to create space for the next ‘academic’ year. The centre also owned an allotment which used by the service users, weather permitting. All training provided at the Centre was aimed at underpinning life skills for the service users.

The team were pleased to learn that a ruling had been made in favour of the centre in the ongoing litigation over VAT exemption, but very disappointed to hear that HMRC had waited until the last minute to lodge an appeal against the decision. The Centre was now waiting to hear the outcome of the appeal.

Overall, the team were very impressed with this service which they would describe as excellent - very much “how it should be done”.