In early 2014, Janice and her husband were living in Northampton and were looking to move to Wellingborough to be closer to her elderly mother and to look after her two young grandchildren.
In July that year, they moved into a Greatwell Homes (then Wellingborough Homes) property in Wellingborough through mutual exchange and were able to be closer to her mother and grandchildren.
Janice said: “A couple of months after we moved my grandchildren also moved in with us. We then looked into the possibility of keeping the grandchildren living with us permanently and applied for a special guardianship order. One of the terms of this order was that we would need to move from a two-bedroom home to a three bedroom, otherwise we could not keep our grandchildren. We spoke to our Neighborhood Housing Officer who gave us a lot of help and support with our application for a bigger home via Keyways (the home allocation service), as she had already known the children and their emotional difficulties. She said she would do anything she could to help us and we ended up being allocated a three bedroom house on the same street as we were on so we didn’t have to move away from the community we and the children were used to”.
“The most important thing was that the children got their own room. Before living here, my granddaughter had no space of her own, but now that both children have their own space it has made the world of difference.” – Janice Crompton
Janice and her family then moved into their new home only a couple of doors away in 2017 with the help of their neighbours. “The most important thing was that the children got their own room. Before living here, my granddaughter had no space of her own, but now that both children have their own space it has made the world of difference. Moving into this house three years ago has brought normality into their lives and even their school said they have seen a positive difference in them.
“Living here has been lovely. Many of the neighbours have been so nice and have helped us with our shopping and cutting our hedges out the front when we’ve needed it. My grandchildren have also become friends with many of the children round here – especially my grandson. I always say if they can get through the past couple of years, they can get through anything – we can already see them growing”.
Fast forward to July 2020, Janice, her husband and her grandchildren are still living in the same home happily as a family, with her eldest grandchild off to secondary school in September.