handshakeMental health charities Richmond Fellowship and Croftlands Trust have signed a formal partnership that will enable them to strengthen and improve the services they offer.

Richmond Fellowship is one of the biggest voluntary sector providers of mental health care in England, offering a range of housing, care, employment and community support to more than 9,000 people every year.

Croftlands Trust has provided support for people with mental ill health in Cumbria for nearly 30 years, including residential services, supported housing, floating support and community-based support.

The deal will see Croftlands Trust become a subsidiary of Richmond Fellowship but remain a registered charity and a limited company in its own right. The formal partnership will not lead to any changes to the provision of existing Croftlands Trust services.

Richmond Fellowship’s chief executive, Derek Caren, said he was “delighted” that Croftlands Trust had joined Richmond Fellowship: “We’ve been proactively seeking out formal partnerships with other charities in order to help us achieve our mission of making recovery reality for the thousands of people we support each year.  

“We believe that joining up with other successful organisations will allow us to offer a wider range of services, develop more innovative ways of providing support and reduce our costs.”
Croftlands Trust’s chief executive, Chris Graham, added: “We’ve a track record of helping people maximise their life confidence by supporting them to retain their skills and independence and promoting wellbeing. But we recognise that if we want to carry on providing high quality, cost effective services then we have to join forces with another voluntary organisation who can provide us with the additional support and stability we need.”