A dental centre, specifically designed for special needs patients is set to open in Spring 2019 after a one million pound investment from Big Issue Invest (BII).
The new site, in Cornwall, will open by the summer.
Resonance, which helps organisations to become investment ready and to raise funding, advised Smile Together, a local employee-owned social enterprise and Community interest company, on the investment.
The investment will finance the refurbishment of a former grammar school in Bodmin, which the community interest company (CIC) has purchased itself, into a purpose-built dental centre designed and adapted for patients with special needs, including mental health conditions and autism.
The new site will increase local access to competitively-priced and fully accessible dental services, and will see children for free.
Helping people with special needs
Smile Together is an employee-owned social enterprise that currently operates from 13 sites across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, providing urgent dental treatments for people who do not have their own dentist.
Alongside oral surgery, children’s orthodontics and treatments under general anaesthetic, the company is equipped to treat children and adults with a range of special care needs. Around 10% of the 40,000 patients they treat each year have special needs.
Refurbishing the building will provide full disabled access, with facilities allowing patients restricted due to physical size, health and mobility to be safely treated on the same dental chair as all other patients.
The new centre will also increase availability of preventative support, education and treatment programmes. An adjoining part of the building will eventually house other local businesses, promoting further financial sustainability for Smile Together.
Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue, made the investment in December 2018 from the Big Issue Invest Social Enterprise Investment Fund II, a £23.8m fund.
‘A unique vision’
Paul Critchley, managing director for Smile Together, said his team is passionate about ‘enhancing our clinical environments and treatment options for patients – to improve our dental services, exceed patient expectations and enable everyone to deliver above and beyond what we’re commissioned and contracted to do.’
‘Having bought this wonderful building, we consulted with patients, commissioners and local contractors, and together developed our plans,’ he added.
We are therefore pleased and proud to have secured this investment funding from Big Issue Invest which will help us realise this unique shared vision for dentistry in Cornwall.’
Health and social care social enterprises turn over £1.5bn a year and employ over 100,000 people according to Social Enterprise UK. In total around one third of all community health services are delivered by social enterprises.
Links
Big Issue Invest Social Enterprise Investment Fund II
