We woke up this morning a bigger and more bustling family. CHADD and The Langstone Society have merged, with more than 100 staff joining CHADD to continue their work under our umbrella.

The two charities have worked together for decades. The Langstone leadership team lived in our top room at our old offices for a long time. Langstone staff supported residents in our homes for people living with a learning disability.

The work this team does is important to us and to all of Dudley, giving opportunity and care to people with learning disabilities.

CHADD is committed to people from across the borough of Dudley. Our founding mission 40 years ago was to help bridge gaps in housing and offer support for those in most need and often the most difficult to help. We still do that work. Not just in mental health but for young homeless people, young families, older people and survivors of domestic abuse.

This means that CHADD is more than doubling in size and there has already been months of works to help this happen smoothly. Thank you to the board at Langstone Society for their work and for trusting us to take on this responsibility.

Over the next few weeks, we will start to get to know each other even better than we do now. In true CHADD style, there will be cake.

We are immensely proud to be welcoming everyone from Langstone as we strengthen and expand all that we do to provide a safety net for people in crisis and a springboard to a better future.