| Service Type | Supported Living — All-Female Service |
| Location | Lewes, East Sussex |
| Client Group | Women with mental health conditions and learning disabilities |
| Support Approach | Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) | Trauma-Informed Practice | Person-Centred Care |
| Registered Provision | CQC Registered — Unicare Complex Care Specialist Ltd |
Close to the South Downs National Park and walking routes
Secure garden and outdoor space for residents
Female-only staff team and resident community
Individual Behaviour Support Plans
Trauma-aware, relational support model
Integrated into a close-knit, accessible market town
Gatehouse in Lewes is a specialist all-female supported living service providing dedicated support to women with mental health conditions and learning disabilities. Located in the historic and picturesque market town of Lewes, East Sussex, the service offers a calm, structured, and community-connected environment in which women can live well, build skills, and work towards their own aspirations.
The Gatehouse service reflects Unicare’s commitment to providing high-quality, specialist supported living in settings that are genuinely therapeutic — not just functionally adequate. Lewes offers a distinctive quality of life: a close-knit community, access to the South Downs National Park, strong local health and social care infrastructure, and a pace of life that is particularly well-suited to women who have found more urban environments overwhelming or destabilising.
Gatehouse operates within Unicare’s PBS framework, with every resident receiving a full Behaviour Support Plan that identifies the factors influencing their wellbeing, the proactive strategies the team uses to support positive experiences, and the graduated approach to any reactive support that may occasionally be required. Plans are built collaboratively — with the resident, their family, and any relevant health professionals — and are reviewed at regular intervals.
Mental health and learning disability frequently coexist in complex and interdependent ways. The Gatehouse support model is specifically designed to hold this complexity — drawing on the team’s expertise in both fields to provide integrated, coherent support rather than a fragmented response to separate diagnoses. Trauma-informed practice provides the connective tissue across all aspects of support, ensuring that every interaction is grounded in safety, respect, and the genuine empowerment of the women we serve.
The Gatehouse team is an all-female staff team, bringing expertise in women’s mental health, learning disability, trauma-informed approaches, and community-based support. Staff are trained to Unicare’s mandatory standard and participate in regular supervision, reflective practice, and continued professional development. The service is managed by a dedicated House Manager and benefits from Unicare’s organisation-wide specialist resources including PBS Specialist consultation and senior management oversight.
The Registered Manager, Rashied Shote, maintains active oversight of the Gatehouse service. Unicare’s PBS Specialist, Chukwuma, provides specialist consultation and reflective supervision for the team, supporting staff to deepen their understanding of each resident’s needs and to continuously develop the quality of their practice.
Gatehouse provides a warm, settled, and well-resourced home environment in a location that is itself a therapeutic asset. The property includes access to outdoor garden space — particularly valued in a setting so close to the South Downs — and internal communal spaces designed to balance group living with individual privacy and calm. Residents are actively supported to engage with Lewes’s rich natural and community environment, including local walking routes, cultural events, and community organisations.
The service environment is designed with sensory sensitivity in mind, and the management team is attentive to the environmental factors — noise, light, spatial layout, predictability of routine — that significantly affect the daily experience of women with autism, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions.
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