Pilot scheme suggested to help people with disabilities sustain remote working
Nottingham Road, Eastwood, where the CEDARS site is located. Image credit: Google
By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
A council leader wants to pilot a project in Eastwood that would help people with physical or mental disabilities to “sustain” remote work while receiving health support.
Broxtowe Borough Council’s cabinet met yesterday (March 11) to discuss updates in its policies and programmes.
The cabinet discussed, and subsequently approved, the proposal to spend £15,000 developing a business case for a health and wellbeing centre, off Nottingham Road in Eastwood.
A similar project, known as ‘CEDARS’, was approved by cabinet in January 2025 and is currently in development.
This centre will house the Department for Work and Pensions, Job Centre Plus, the Connect to Work programme and access to health care and voluntary support, alongside support packages for carers of people with Alzheimer’s.
Cllr Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance), the authority’s leader, spoke of the health inequalities in the north of Broxtowe, particularly in ex-mining areas, and the volume of young people out of work or training.
He said: “Places like Eastwood suffer with horrendous inherent health problems and have a total under-provision of medical facilities accessible to the local public.”
Recent Office for National Statistics data found 987,000 16- to 24-year-olds were not in work, education or training between October and December 2024.
Cllr Radulovic suggested piloting a scheme at the CEDARS site, allowing people with disabilities, who work – or want to work – remotely, to do so in a centre where they can receive physical and mental support at the same time.
He said: “If you’re [remote working] in a call centre, or any other remote worker, they could come into a facility to work and have the physical and mental support to help them sustain themselves in their career as part of the connect to work programme.”
The council leader also said the scheme would enable them to make a “good contribution to society”.
Cllr Steve Carr (Ind) added: “It just shows that we’ve been absolutely forensic at looking at our borough and identifying the areas [for support] – that is what we’ll lose if we go into a much bigger authority.”
Cllr Teresa Cullen (Brox Alliance) told the meeting she works with a group of 10 young people aged 15 to 16 who have been excluded from school.
She said: “Across the county youth workers like me are working with young people who have never got back the time they lost during Covid.
“Young people, when we give them jobs and support them into work they do want to earn money, and when they have the opportunity to do it they’ll keep doing it.”
Cllr Radulovic added the council “cannot fail the lost generation, [or] we will never be forgiven or forgotten”.
Proposals in 2021/22 for the proposed larger health centre saw it including a GP surgery, pharmacy, diagnostic and treatment rooms, a women’s health centre, a swimming pool and library learning facilities with the building being at least two storeys.
More recent proposals suggest the centre could be built across more land, meaning the centre could be built on one level, which could “save several million pounds in costs” according to council papers.
As part of the £15,000, an architect will be brought in to assess the land and to look at making the building more efficient if extra land can be used.
Explore more
