Growing together - welcoming Beacon Counselling
Published 30 September 2025
In September 2025, we completed a merger with Beacon Counselling, a Stockport organisation providing counselling and wellbeing support for adults, young people, and children. This marks an exciting milestone for us at Making Space and another important step forward in our long-term growth strategy.
Beacon Counselling delivers talking therapies and wellbeing support for adults, children, and young people in Stockport – working with the NHS, schools, and employers to help people manage challenges like anxiety, trauma, and stress.
By welcoming Beacon into Making Space, we are expanding our wellbeing and Talking therapies portfolio beyond our existing services in Wigan, Cheshire, and Warrington. This means we can strengthen our offer and ensure even more people have access to vital mental health support.
This merger comes just 12 months after we purchased the building that houses Palmyra, our residential care home in Waterloo, Liverpool. Palmyra provides accommodation and personal care for adults living with mental health conditions. By purchasing the property, we secured the long-term future of the home. Rather than see residents displaced, we stepped in to protect their homes and ensure continuity and stability for the people we support, some of whom have lived there for more than 20 years.
Together, these two developments highlight our commitment to delivering on our 2024–2029 strategic plan, Recipe for Success, which identifies mergers and acquisitions as a key area of growth. In particular Talking therapies and broader wellbeing services are one of three priority service types we are actively pursuing.
Through our merger with Beacon, we have secured the continuation of local wellbeing services, including NHS Stockport Talking therapies and a range of community and workplace counselling programmes. Discussions about transferring service provision were positive, with agreement reached with NHS partners, Stockport Homes Group, and Stockport Metropolitan Council.
For us, this is not only about preserving Beacon Counselling services but also about creating opportunities to build on strong foundations, grow provision, and innovate with even greater impact. We are also excited to strengthen the connections with our wider portfolio of services in Stockport – which already includes the Stockport Connect Hub, launched in August 2025 to deliver the community-based Mental Health Prevention and Enablement Service on behalf of Stockport Council; Open Door Stockport, part of Greater Manchester’s Crisis Spaces network which has recently moved into a larger town-centre base; and Castlewood Court, our supported living scheme in partnership with Inclusion Housing.
As our CEO, Rachel Peacock, explains:
This is an exciting milestone for Making Space and for the communities we support. By welcoming Beacon Counselling into Making Space, we are ensuring local people continue to benefit from high-quality counselling and therapeutic services, while creating opportunities to share expertise and deliver even greater impact. This merger is a clear demonstration of our strategy in action and our commitment to growth, stability, and the best possible support.
Talking about the merger, Sandi Marshall, former CEO of Beacon Counselling, added:
Beacon is taking an exciting new step forward by joining Making Space. This partnership will strengthen the support it provides and ensure it continues making a lasting difference to people’s mental health and wellbeing in Stockport. By becoming part of Making Space, Beacon is securing its future and gaining access to greater resources and expertise. I am confident this step will allow Beacon to build on its proud history while opening the door to new opportunities that will benefit the people Beacon is here to support.
Professor Mike Thomas (Making Space) and Duncan Weldrake (Beacon Counselling), Chairs of the respective Boards of Trustees, agreed:
This merger is built on a shared vision, mutual respect, and a commitment to delivering even greater impact for the people and communities we serve. By combining our expertise and values, we are confident we will unlock new opportunities, foster innovation, and strengthen our resilience. We are proud of the experience each organisation brings, and even more excited about what we can achieve together. We would like to thank our teams and funding partners for their commitment in making this partnership possible.
By acquiring Palmyra and now merging with Beacon Counselling within the space of a year, we have shown both the ambition and the capability to grow through carefully chosen opportunities. Each has been selected to strengthen our core services, align with our strategic vision, and ensure the people we support experience continuity, stability, and care.
This latest development is a cornerstone of our strategy, helping us to build a stronger future for Making Space and the people and communities we serve.