Mindful Paws
Specialist Alternative Provision Using Nature-Based Practice, Therapeutic Mentoring & Canine-Assisted Interventions for Young People and Adults Aged 8–25 Across Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire
Alternative Provision in Hertfordshire
About
Mindful Paws is a small, specialist Alternative Provision setting based in Old Welwyn, Hertfordshire. We offer bespoke, sessional support for young people who are outside of mainstream education, or who benefit from dedicated time in a safe, nurturing environment alongside their existing school placement.
Our sessions are flexible and shaped entirely around the individual; a young person might come to us for a single session each week, or for several sessions across the week. There is no fixed model. Everything is agreed at referral stage and reviewed regularly, ensuring the provision always reflects what the young person needs right now.
We support EOTAS packages, EHCP outcomes and gradual reintegration pathways. But above all, we support young people to feel safe, to feel seen, and to begin to believe that the future can look different.
We meet young people where they truly are, not where the world says they should be.
Our provision is small, intentional and grounded in relationship. We offer a warm and welcoming space where trust can develop gradually, where each young person’s autonomy is encouraged, and where progress happens because the conditions for it have been carefully and intentionally created.
Young people who come to us have often worried that support won’t feel different this time. We understand that. And we work quietly and patiently to show them that it can.
Our young people have named our hub in Old Welwyn their sanctuary. That means everything to us.
At the heart of our provision is the extraordinary relationship between young people and our therapy dogs. This is not simply a nice addition to our work — it is one of the most powerful therapeutic tools we have.
Research consistently shows that interaction with animals reduces cortisol levels, lowers heart rate and activates the body’s calming systems. Dogs are uniquely attuned to human emotion. They respond to how we feel, not what we say. For young people who have learned to distrust human relationships, or who find verbal communication difficult, this can be genuinely transformative.
There is no performance required with a dog. No judgement. No agenda. Just presence, warmth and unconditional acceptance. For many of the young people we work with, their relationship with our therapy dogs is the first safe relationship they have experienced in a long time. And from that foundation, everything else becomes possible.
Our therapy dogs are fully trained, certified and insured, and their welfare is as central to our work as the welfare of the young people they support.
Our Offering
Our offering is wide and wonderfully varied. It is also, at its core, deeply connected, because the relationship between a young person and their practitioner is not the backdrop to our work. It is the work.
Sessions might include baking, arts and crafts, music, photography, games, nature-based experiences in our private meadow, walks through the countryside, time with our therapy dogs, tuition woven gently into meaningful activity, or simply sitting together with a cup of tea and space to talk.
Some sessions are active and energetic. Some are quiet and reflective. Some are filled with laughter. Some hold more difficult things. What they all have in common is that they are chosen by the young person, shaped around what feels right on that particular day, and held within a relationship built on genuine trust, consistency and care.
This might include, but is never limited to:
- Time with our therapy dogs — co-regulation, connection and calm
- Nature-based experiences; time in our private meadow and outdoor spaces
- Baking and cooking
- Arts, crafts and creative expression
- Music
- Photography and visual storytelling
- Games — building connection, joy and trust
- Walks and movement in nature
- Tuition and AQA Unit Awards — accrediting achievement at every level, in a way that feels accessible
- 1:1 mentorship and human connection
- Small group experiences
Every activity is a vehicle for connection. That is what makes our offering transformative rather than simply therapeutic.
AQA Unit Award Scheme
Mindful Paws is registered with the AQA Unit Award Scheme, a nationally recognised accreditation that allows us to formally recognise and celebrate achievement at every level, however small.
AQA Unit Awards are uniquely suited to young people who have found formal assessment difficult. Each unit recognises a specific skill, activity or piece of learning, and is recorded on an official AQA certificate in the young person's name. For many of the young people we work with, their AQA certificates represent some of the first formal recognition of achievement they have ever received, and the pride this brings is transformative.
Units can be earned through a wide range of activities, including photography, cookery, nature study, creative arts and personal development. We shape unit work around what the young person is already doing, making accreditation feel natural, not forced.
Tuition & Functional Skills
Learning at Mindful Paws begins with connection. For many of our young people, school has come to feel overwhelming, so our tuition looks and feels different. There is no pressure and no rush. We start from where they are.
Tuition is delivered one-to-one by our qualified specialist SEN teachers, at our hub in Old Welwyn or, where it helps, in a young person’s own home.
We offer tuition up to GCSE level, with a particular focus on Functional Skills English and Maths. Every session is shaped around the young person: their needs, their interests and their pace. Through clear explanations, modelling, hands-on activities and small, achievable steps, confidence and understanding grow together.
Supporting communication
Our team brings specialist training in speech, language and communication, including an Elklan qualification and Colourful Semantics. This means we can adapt how we explain, question and model language, so that every young person can understand, take part and express themselves with growing confidence. Colourful Semantics uses colour to help young people build
sentences step by step, which makes reading and writing feel more visual and achievable.
Functional Skills are nationally recognised qualifications, valued by colleges, training providers and employers. We walk alongside our young people through each topic. Gentle check-ins and feedback help us see what is clicking and where a little more support would help.
Many of our AQA Unit Awards link directly to Functional Skills, so learning is broken into manageable pieces and recognised along the way. Units such as Reading for Information and Basic Money Management build the skills the qualification needs, and every completed unit earns an official certificate.
When they’re ready, not before
There is no deadline for the exam. When a young person feels ready, we help them choose where to sit it, somewhere that feels right for them:
- Online, from a quiet room at home, with a remote invigilator
- At a local registered exam centre, with staff on hand
Families book the exam directly with an approved provider, and we support them through every step. That includes practising on the online exam platform beforehand, requesting access arrangements such as extra time, and making sure nothing on the day comes as a surprise.
Small steps. Recognised achievement. A pathway of their own choosing.
Our Spaces
Our dedicated hub in Old Welwyn is a warm, welcoming space that feels truly unique — a place that has been called a sanctuary by the young people who use it. We think that’s exactly right.
Not all therapy takes place within four walls. Alongside our hub, we have access to beautiful private outdoor and meadow spaces where young people can roam, explore, breathe and simply be. Research consistently shows that time in nature reduces anxiety, regulates the nervous system and restores a sense of calm — and we see this every single day. These spaces are unstructured, unhurried and full of possibility. They are an extension of the sanctuary itself.
Where appropriate, we can also come to you — working within a young person’s home or community, meeting them where they feel most comfortable and most safe.
Autonomy & Transformation
Autonomy is not an add-on at Mindful Paws. It is fundamental to everything we do.
Young people who arrive at our door have very often spent years being told what to do, where to go, how to behave, and what they should be capable of. Many have internalised a story about themselves that is defined by their struggles rather than their strengths. We work to gently, consistently rewrite that story.
We do this by giving young people real choice — over what they do, how they do it, and the pace at which they move. We celebrate the micro-moments: turning up, trying something new, asking for help, making eye contact, laughing. These are the moments of transformation. They do not always look dramatic. But they are profound.
Progress looks different for every young person we work with. But what we see, time and again, is this: young people who arrived uncertain, disengaged or disbelieving in themselves, leaving with a stronger sense of who they are, a capacity for connection, and a genuine belief that things can be different. Small steps. Profound change.
Sessional Placements & Referrals
Our placements are sessional and entirely bespoke — agreed at referral stage and shaped around the individual young person’s needs, availability and support plan.
A young person might attend for one session per week or several sessions across the week. We work with families, schools and Local Authorities to find what is right, and we review this regularly as the young person’s needs evolve.
Placements are typically arranged on a termly basis to allow for meaningful and consistent progress.
Funding may be arranged via:
- Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
- Alternative Provision budget
- Local Authority commissioning
- Private arrangement
We are always happy to speak with families, schools and LA teams before any formal referral is made. Please do get in touch.
Quality Assurance
Mindful Paws is quality assurance checked with local authorities. All practitioners are fully qualified, DBS checked and insured. A safeguarding policy, letter of assurance and full referral pack are available on request. Please contact us at info@mindful-paws.co.uk.
© Mindful Paws
Powered by WebHealer