People And Animal Wellbeing Services CIC

People and Animal Wellbeing Services CIC has continued to provide educational and therapeutic wellbeing support for children and young people through Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI). Our support is delivered on a 1:1 basis in schools, community settings and in the home. We work with children and young people funded through local authority EHCPs, EOTAS packages, emergency alternative provision and private arrangements. As an outreach alternative provision, we remain able to meet young people in environments where they feel safe and able to engage, supporting access to education in a flexible, needs-led way. Over the past year we have supported schools, families and local authorities across a wide range of cases, including those involving SEN, neurodivergence, social communication needs, EBSA, ACEs and SEMH profiles. We have worked closely with multiple local authorities to meet new procurement and commissioning requirements in line with evolving government guidance, and we have continued to grow and develop our education tutoring programme, which blends National Curriculum learning with AAI to improve engagement, emotional literacy and confidence. Our community benefit is reflected in the support we provide not only to children and young people, but also to parents, carers and schools. PAWS CIC remains a neurodiversity-informed and trauma-aware practice, offering safe, relational, person-led sessions that build emotional literacy, co-regulation and social communication skills. We continue to support re-engagement for pupils with EBSA, and to provide consistent guidance and communication to the families and professionals involved. This year saw the final spend from our 2 year grant from the Pets foundation which allowed for support across 6 schools - securing those contracts through the grant allowed for a foundation service provision for team members - further allowing business growth. As such surplus generated by the organisation has been used to subsidise or fully fund sessions for young people experiencing delays in EHCP processes, local authority paperwork or commissioning decisions. This has ensured that children with acute or emergency wellbeing needs have not experienced gaps in support while waiting for statutory systems to progress. Organisationally, PAWS CIC has continued to strengthen its capacity. Our practitioner team has grown, and we now work with a team of 19 highly skilled professionals delivering AAI-informed wellbeing and education programmes. All staff continue to operate within our established safeguarding, health and safety and quality assurance frameworks, as outlined in our internal policy suite and QMS documentation. The feedback we gather from schools, families and young people continues to shape service improvements and supports our commitment to delivering safe, effective and impactful AAI provision.