Witherslack Care and Education Initiatives has expanded its range of provision by establishing a specialist Home and Learning Facility in the North East of England. The Grange is located on a tranquil 10 acre semi-rural site on the outskirts of Durham City. This provides numerous opportunities for therapeutic work and access to leisure and social pursuits in addition to having excellent links to community-based facilities in Wear Valley and Durham City.

The Grange is a specialised fully integrated facility which provides a high quality, well-furnished Home for up to seven young people with complex learning difficulties and challenging behaviour. There is a modern Learning Centre on site which provides a highly personalised curriculum to facilitate positive learning and social outcomes for young people.  Access to a wide range of local educational, social and cultural experiences supports this as does the provision of additional therapies, completing our integrated package of care, education and therapy.

The purpose of the Home is to provide a therapeutically managed facility to meet the nurturing, management, social, emotional, educational and moral needs of young people who are unable to live in a family context.

It is envisaged that young people will live in the Home for at least two years;  this is necessary in order to undertake therapeutic work to help the young person develop a sense of personal security and identify with consequent emotional and social development.

We have plans for The Grange to expand and develop into “leading edge” provision with an additional high quality Home, extending our Learning Centre and creating outdoor learning facilities.

Education

All young people living at The Grange attend the onsite Learning Centre. This is a new, well-equipped school providing a highly personalised, structured curriculum for up to seven pupils between the ages of 8-16 years.  The Learning Centre is DCSF registered and is staffed by three qualified teachers and three Learning Support staff providing a  highly personalised curriculum with learning programmes tailored to the needs of each individual.

Accommodation

The Grange provides a high quality group living experience for up to seven young people.  All young people have individual bedrooms with five of the seven bedrooms having en-suite facilities.

On the ground floor the Home has a lounge, a large conservatory, dining room, kitchen and two en-suite bedrooms.

On the first floor there are five additional bedrooms, three of which are en-suite, and a family bathroom.  On this floor there is also a staff sleeping-in room and staff office.

The Home is set in a large 10 acre semi-rural site which provides numerous opportunities for leisure and social pursuits in addition to having excellent links to community based facilities in Wear Valley and Durham City.

Activities

 

All of the young people are given opportunities to access a wide range of leisure and social facilities in either a supported, semi-independent or independent manner. Within the locality there are a variety of facilities that the young people access and enjoy; shops, parks, beach and cinema in addition to activities that offer a more structured programme of events; sporting clubs, swimming pools and youth groups. The young people are fully involved in deciding which activities take place.