Jupiter was formed as a members group in 2004 as a partnership between three Cumbrian support organisations - West House, Chrysalis and Glenmore Trust. It was set up because the traditional ways of ensuring quality in human services did not always lead to improved lives for people with learning disabilities. Jupiter was created to check services were doing their job properly and listening to what people wanted.
The group spent some time carefully working out what quality meant to them and how they might try to measure it. The group then looked at some services to see whether this approach might work. The success of these pilots gave rise to the idea that the group might form itself as a social enterprise employing people with learning disabilities as “experts by experience”. The Governance Hub offered support and some of the group took part in the Launchpad programme to learn some of the key elements of setting up and running a business. The group won a £2000 award for their presentation to an esteemed audience at the climax of this programme. Since then the Group has worked hard to develop a Business Plan and the necessary legal structures and frameworks to become a successful social business. Jupiter became an Industrial and Provident Friendly Society in 2008.
