Our history

Making Space was born in 1982 and is proud to be an early pioneer of the quality health and social care services found in the UK today.

Established in Warrington by David Lyne, a former development officer with the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, we were driven by a determination to improve the lives of people with mental health conditions and their carers.


  • 1982 > We began as the North West Fellowship, driven by a determination to improve the lives of adults living with schizophrenia and their carers.
  • 1991 > We changed our name to Making Space, expanding our focus to support anyone affected by mental illness.
  • 2012 > We branched out our services to everyone in need of care and support. Including those living with mental health conditions, learning disabilities, dementia, and older people with age-related concerns, as well as their carers.
  • We have helped over 200,000 adults with care and support needs.
  • Today we are a national charity and leading provider of health and social care services.

Over the past 40 years we have grown from a small group, focused solely on mental health, with around 100 members and a £25,000 turnover, to a large multi-million-pound organisation, with over 1,000 employees and volunteers delivering innovative, personalised services across the whole spectrum of health and social care.

Although we’re bigger than ever, we’ve not forgotten our humble beginnings, nor are we complacent. We will continue to invest in our services, provide even better care and build for the future.

Our cookies

We use cookies, which are small text files, to improve your experience on our website.
You can allow or reject non essential cookies or manage them individually.

Reject allAllow all

More options  •  Cookie policy

Our cookies

Allow all

We use cookies, which are small text files, to improve your experience on our website. You can allow all or manage them individually.

You can find out more on our cookie page at any time.

EssentialThese cookies are needed for essential functions such as logging in and making payments. Standard cookies can't be switched off and they don't store any of your information.
AnalyticsThese cookies help us collect information such as how many people are using our site or which pages are popular to help us improve customer experience. Switching off these cookies will reduce our ability to gather information to improve the experience.
FunctionalThese cookies are related to features that make your experience better. They enable basic functions such as social media sharing. Switching off these cookies will mean that areas of our website can't work properly.
AdvertisingThese cookies help us to learn what you're interested in so we can show you relevant adverts on other websites and track the effectiveness of our advertising.
PersonalisationThese cookies help us to learn what you're interested in so we can show you relevant content.

Save preferences