West House West House offers a wide range of care and support to adults and children with disabilities. Its vision is that children, young people and adults with learning and other difficulties in Cumbria live a fulfilling life, in the way they want and with the support they choose. West House runs five social enterprises that provide a wide range of training opportunities for people with learning disabilities including its cafes in Workington, Whitehaven and Keswick, the Grow West garden centre in Allerby and The Pottery in Workington. The cafés in Whitehaven, Workington and Keswick provide invaluable work experience and training opportunities for young people and adults with learning disabilities. The cafes offer a range of home-cooked food made fresh onsite every day by trainees using the finest, locally sourced ingredients. Trainees are involved in all aspects of running the cafés and gain valuable experience of working in a business and of interacting with customers. Trainees at West House’s Pottery in Workington make all the ceramics the pottery produces. The pottery’s work has been featured in a host of national publications including The Sunday Times and Period Living. The Allerby Community garden provides trainees with hands on experience of horticulture and retail, trainees can also gain accredited qualifications in horticulture. West House is currently developing an exciting new project – Hall Garden in Workington, a new £1.9m project that will bring together all its social enterprises in one place. CASE STUDY Lakes College Lakes College is an award-winning technical college with a track record of delivering quality training and education in West Cumbria for more than 20 years. The college provides further and higher education in technical training and skills to help people to progress in the world of work, whether they are taking their first steps, looking to progress or exploring a change of career. The college works closely with more than 700 employer partners including Amentum, Morgan Sindall, Thomas Armstrong and the NHS to make sure programmes match West Cumbria’s workforce needs. At any one time the college has more than 1,200 apprentices in industries ranging from nuclear and construction to business and education. In early 2024, Her Majesty The Queen presented Lakes College with a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize, the highest national honour in further and higher education. The award was presented in recognition of the development opportunities at the college for highly skilled technicians for the nuclear and low carbon energy sectors. The college’s fast-growing campus includes the £1 million Digital Accelerator Hub designed to upgrade computing and IT skills in the county, the National College for Nuclear’s Northern Hub, the multi-millionpound Construction Skills Centre and the Civil Engineering Training Centre. CASE STUDY 35 34
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