Ofsted success for our service

Bassenthwaite service awarded Outstanding judgement by Ofsted

We are delighted to announce that our Bassenthwaite service was awarded a judgement of ‘Outstanding’ in its most recent Ofsted inspection. We are very proud of the Service Manager, Jodie, and her team, for their passion and dedication to transforming children’s lives. 

Ofsted inspectors praised the life-changing work we do for the children we support at Wilderness Way:

“Children are making exceptional progress from their starting points. Children’s life chances are significantly improved because of the dedicated and consistent care they receive. The team supports children who have experienced some of the most complex and challenging circumstances to make positive and sustained changes to their lives.” (Ofsted report)

Our primary aim at WW is to enable children who come to us in crisis to move on to a stable environment and a brighter future. This involves a multi-faceted approach which identifies and supports the child’s needs, builds their emotional and physical wellbeing and develops their independence and confidence. It also means working with the child, partner agencies and families to ensure that everything is in place for them to be successful in the future. Our teams are highly skilled at understanding how to transform children’s lives in this way, and we are thrilled that this has been highlighted by Ofsted:

“Staff are adept at quickly developing supportive and trusting relationships with children. The depth of these relationships is key to helping children to have meaningful conversations about their experiences. Staff help children to develop feelings of self-worth. Children recognise the positive impact that the staff have on their lives. This has helped children to understand how to keep themselves safe. One child described how the staff team look at the things that matter the most. Their parent explained how the staff are non-judgmental and have ‘gone the extra mile’ to support their child to make significant changes to enable them to return to their care. This involved a detailed transition plan, with staff making twice-weekly visits to the child’s family home to support their care.” (Ofsted report)

We want to thank our Care, Education, Health and Wellbeing, and Outdoor teams for the outstanding work that they do for our children.