FAQs

We operate out of four main sites in Dorset – Gatehouse Farm (Wool), Normandy Farm (Blandford), Bourne Park and Greencore (both near Dorchester).

We also work with trusted partners across the county, and provide an Outreach Service for those who can’t yet attend our sites.

To make a self-referral or to discuss the kind of placement you may be looking for, please use the form or phone number on our contact page.

Depending on the situation, you can arrange to join us at one of our sites to meet our staff and learn more about the support and curriculum on offer.

Alternatively, we can arrange to meet you at your home before proposing a way forward.

In many cases the answer is yes, and we are always keen to help. Our management team all have extensive experience in this line of service, and are well placed to provide the support needed to build engagement.

We often find a trial day, or even just a brief visit to walk around one of our sites works well as a starting point. Here you will get a sense of what a day in the life of Dorset Wellbeing can look like, and discuss how our provision could be tailored specifically for you.

We include transport to and from site as part of our provision, as well as any further movement between our locations. This also provides an opportunity for our mentors to build relationships with the young people throughout each day.

Every child and young person is different, which is why the broad range of sites and provisions we offer means we can usually tailor a service that will be a good fit.

You can be confident that we always work closely with young people and their carers/parents, as well as other professionals, to design a personalised service.

Most of our work starts with one-to-one mentorship and can expand to include work in smaller groups, depending on the needs of the young person.

We are fortunate to offer multiple sites to host the various young people in our care. This allows us some flexibility to meet the varying needs of our young people. In addition to this we are able to offer Outreach sessions which can be conducted in the home, or in a prearranged settings agreed ahead of time.

In September 2018 Dorset Wellbeing was awarded a place on the Alternative Provision Framework for Children and Young People by Dorset County Council – Tender Reference: DN341953.

We are also members of the National Youth Agency and Social Farms and Gardens and we choose to be bound by the Ethical Framework for Good Practice of the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy.

We provide support for those working towards Level 2 Functional Skills in both Maths and English.

We can also help young people complete vocational workbooks towards a variety of careers, and have seen several of these graduate from our dedicated LANTRA programme - qualifying them to work in the land-based and environmental sector.

If your young person is interested in any other qualifications, it is worth having a conversation with us. Our multidisciplinary staff have a breadth of knowledge to draw on, so will do our utmost to cater for the varying interests of the young people we work with.

Our day typically runs from 10am to 2pm, and the sessions we hold will depend on the individual concerned.

We can tailor our provision to the relative needs of the young person. That means we can alter our session delivery to maximise the engagement of the child, rather than conforming to a more rigid, traditional timing delivery.

As a team, we have experience of working with the whole educational age range, including Early Years and Further Education.

Most of our work is with young people between 8 - 18 years old, and we carefully consider the compilation of small groups in order to keep them age/maturity appropriate.

In certain cases, we will work outside this range. Please contact us to see if we can help you in this respect.

Due to the scale of our provision, we usually have places available for new starters at any point during the school year. Please contact us to confirm.