Opening times / out of hours opening
- Monday - Friday : 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Closed weekends and bank holidays.
Wakefield Recovery and Wellbeing College
The Recovery and Wellbeing College is led by South West Yorkshire Partnership Teaching NHS Foundation Trust and is open to anyone aged 16 or over, from anywhere in the world. We work in partnership with volunteers and other supporting organisations (both local and national) to deliver free courses and workshops that promote wellbeing and good health. Sessions are offered in small groups, both face‑to‑face across the district and online, and are delivered together with professionals and people with lived experience (experts by experience).
We recognise that recovery means different things to different people. Rather than focusing on complete recovery from illness, we see it as regaining quality of life (which may have been affected by health issues, caring roles, work or personal circumstances, or disability) and reconnecting with what matters, such as confidence, purpose and meaning, social skills or connection, life opportunities, education, employment and more. Our courses and our volunteering opportunities reflect this.
Age range / who can access the service
We are open free of charge to anyone aged 16 and over, with no upper age limit, who would like to improve their own mental and/or physical wellbeing or knowledge, that of someone they love or care for, and to those who wish to aid their work with others. It doesn’t matter where you live – our courses are available to everyone, no matter your background or location.
Key support offer
- Short, co-produced, recovery focused courses and workshops
- Free access for everyone
- Personal development
- Education about and self-management of mental health and physical health conditions
- physical activity that’s not scary or exclusive
- wellbeing support
- Hobby and skill development
- Social connections
- Professional development
- Tools for a good quality of life
- Termtime, Monday to Friday offer
- Volunteering opportunities
- Partnership opportunities
- The chance to support others who have experienced or are experiencing something like you have
- Placement opportunities for degree and masters students in relevant fields
- Small groups
- Not postcode restricted
- Face to face courses and workshops in various community venues across the Wakefield district
- Online courses and workshops
- Very flexible with adaptations to make sessions as easy as possible to join
- The opportunity to bring someone with you for support
- We’re a non-clinical service so you’ll never be discharged
- Accessible and inclusive.
What we don't offer
- Crisis or clinical interventions
- Therapy
- Treatments
- Educational tests, exams or assessments
- Classroom layouts
- Formal qualifications
- Regular ongoing support (e.g. no weekly support sessions or support groups)
- Evening or weekend courses
- Big groups
- One to one sessions.
| Category | Notes | Yes / No |
| Self Help | including guided self-help e.g. recovery college. | yes |
| Community Based | GP practices, primary care team, live well social prescribing, Voluntary and community sector support. | yes |
| Professional Referral | further info about local clinical teams, accessed by professional referral (SPA, info on CORE AND ENHANCED, IHBT MH Teams). | Generally no but we do occasionally refer to SPA if the person is known to us. |
Website / Social Media Links
- https://www.wakefieldrecoverycollege.nhs.uk
- https://www.facebook.com/wakefieldrecoverycollege
- https://www.instagram.com/wakefieldrecoverycollege
- https://www.x.com/WF_RecoveryColl
Accessibility information for service
In Individual Learning Plan, or ILP appointment is arranged with every person who is new to the Recovery College. It’s an opportunity for us to get to know each other, give you further information about your courses, to learn what we can do to make your time with us more comfortable or accessible and to get you booked on to those courses you’ve expressed an interest in attending. We usually conduct these over the phone at a pre-arranged appointment time, though we can do the appointment via video call or face to face if you prefer (just let us know when you enrol with us).
Appointments usually last between 10 and 30 minutes depending on how many courses you have booked on to with us and whether you have any needs that you wish us to record/that you would like us to support you with. We cannot provide childcare, carer respite, transport or fees to cover transport costs, but will try our best to meet any other adjustment needed for students. NB – We have access to interpreters and translation services and have a hearing loop available for those in need of one.
Waiting times / triage timescales
Once we have received your completed enrolment form, one of the team will be in touch to arrange a quick telephone appointment with you to get you booked on to your courses. We aim to respond to all expressions of interest (enrolment forms) as quickly as possible; this is often the following working day but can be up to 5 working days following receiving your completed form. If it’s been a little longer than this, feel free to get in touch to chase up your enrolment so that we can make sure nothing has been missed and that we have received your form our side.
Most courses can be booked straight on to, without the need to wait. For our really popular courses though we do sometimes have waiting lists. We do our best to get you on to these courses as quickly as possible by either notifying you if someone cancels their place (offering these spaces in order of when you were placed on the waiting list), or, should enough people be on a waiting list, we simply look to put on an additional date as close as possible to the original to enable you to attend sooner.
How to access - self or professional referral
Self-referral, known as self-enrolment (though people can be supported by a professional or friend/family member to complete the enrolment form, or can complete this over the phone with us if they have no online access themselves, or have reading/writing difficulties).
Key partners
We work with anyone from statutory, voluntary or community groups and organisations (big or small) who believe in our ethos of sharing the experiences of others to support people to live a good quality of life.
Signposting to services that can offer support if this service can't
Yes – we signpost to all of our partners, local community groups, national charities, professional organisations/services and more. We aim to be a stepping stone service that supports people to be able to engage in their community (whether that is geographically, or a community of people experiencing similar events or conditions).
