Planned Environment Therapy Trust

During the course of the 1980s the Trust identified a major deficit in the sources and resources available for research, study, communication and training in relation to the history, practice and public understanding of therapeutic work with children, young people and adults, particularly in residential therapeutic settings. Having ascertained that these needs were not being met elsewhere, the Trust set out an ambitious programme.

In 1989 it established the Archive and Study Centre, creating a permanent, professional home for the memory of the field - the records, objects and experiences making up the heritage of this area of life and work. As a result of this successful work, the Trust built the Barns Conference Centre which opened in 2002, with the  aim of providing facilities in support of the Archive and Study Centre, for day and residential seminars, conferences, meetings, and events.

Since its beginnings in a bedroom, with just one collection, the Archive and Study Centre has now amassed over two hundred archive collections, created a research library with over 7,000 volumes, and houses an audio-visual/oral history collection with over 1500 audio and video recordings.

The decision to create an archive as a resource for learning and development was based on several factors and in large part stems from the ethos and ideas of the early founders of the Trust.  They understood the difficulties of the work, and the difficulties of doing the work,  and also had a keen sense of the value of archives and history as practical tools for learning, training, and developing practice:  Gathering, preserving and using records are woven into the discussion and the core concern from the founding of the Trust in 1966 onwards.