Good attendance is vital for your child to achieve their potential. This is key to both their social and academic development and gives them the best opportunities post 16. JAMES maintain Ofsted standards and support young people to gain qualifications, experience, and skills to meet their full potential.

We are registered as a centre through IMI (Institute of Motor Industry), focusing on vocational qualifications in motor vehicle maintenance, with embedded PSD and Functional Skills

Referrers please email referrals@jamesuk.org or call us on 01274 483075. You can download our referral form below. We can tailor make programmes to support individual needs.

We believe in working with small groups of students, with a high ratio of staff to young people.

• JAMES school times are 9 (for a 9.15 start) to 2.30 daily
• JAMES offers alternative provision from our Shipley, Keighley and Holme Wood sites
• Young people can attend JAMES up to 3 days a week

Download referral form 2024-25

JAMES is a VCS partner delivering family support across the Bradford district. The partnership is led by Barnardo’s and includes YMCA and Brathay. We have a team of experienced keyworkers  who support families with a range of issues:

• Ensuring children are free from harm and the risk of exploitation
• School attendance and barriers to accessing education
• Parenting support
• Anti-social Behaviour and offending behaviour
• Job search and employability
• Improving mental and physical health
• Reducing harm from substance misuse

JAMES work with a range of partner organisations to ensure that families receive holistic support, and outcomes for the children and wider family, are improved.

In partnership with Step 2 (Lead partner) and HALE, JAMES has been commissioned by Bradford Council to provide *free* support in the delivery of compulsory RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) in Bradford’s secondary schools.

We deliver sessions to young people, upskill staff and speak to parents, around topics such as:-

• Healthy relationships
• Sexual health
• Sexual bullying & Harassment
• Puberty
• Consent (everyday & sexual consent)
• Staying Safe
• Contraception
• Pornography & its impact
• Pregnancy & choices/menopause
• Parenting

We can provide curriculum reviews to support schools in implementing the correct statutory content.

For more information, please contact our school’s co-ordinator at JAMES – claire.spiller@jamesuk.org

Our programme ‘Time Apart, Time Together’ has been designed to help promote positive emotional wellbeing and quality time for parents and young people, delivered by The JAMES project and funded by Bradford’s Core 20 Plus 5. The programme aims to support parents/carers and young people ages 8 to 18 across Keighley (West, Central, East and Worth Valley) experiencing difficulties with emotional wellbeing, mental health and resilience.

The programme will be delivered at a variety of venues on dates ranging from January to August 2025. It runs as 6 weekly sessions at 2 hours a session, or 2 full day sessions. This runs as a ‘mirrored programme’ meaning parents/carers and children are covering the same subjects each session while remaining separate, before reuniting to engage in a fun activity together. After completion of the programme, the parent/carer and young child are invited to attend a celebration day, decided by them, with their wider family if they wish, promoting quality family time and further building positive relationships.

We are due to run 2 cycles within March at local primary schools and will run our 2 day cycles within February, Easter, Spring Bank and Summer school holidays. If you would like to join a programme or would like further information please contact Caroline Patterson – 07398099166 or Leah Cook 07572161259.

A project for girls aged 12 to 16 based at our Keighley Tramshed. Girl Empower is aimed at young women who might be struggling in mainstream education or have complex barriers to learning.  Our girls are often referred due to vulnerabilities and need support and guidance around personal safety.

Girl Empower is designed to improve; confidence and self-esteem, raise aspirations, improve school attainment, and encourage girls into positive destinations.

We use a varied programme including getting girls out of their comfort zones and sessions on subjects such as body image, bullying, healthy eating, sexual health, grooming and drug awareness.

We also have a devised a programme for young men focusing on key issues that they are likely to face in today’s society. We can deliver these empower programmes in various settings such as PRU’s, community centres and schools as well as our sessions at our Keighley base.  Sessions are fully funded so are free to referrers.  For more information or to make a referral please contact angela.stack@jamesuk.org

At our Marine Division JAMES’ programmes are delivered along the Leeds/Liverpool canal. We use a 54′ wide beam barge which is moored at the Shipley site, for our youth work provision. We also have 2 other boats – Lady Jane which is our work boat and Lady Rani which is used for festivals and special events.

The navigation of a barge along the canal corridor is a unique opportunity to assist young people to develop new skills, improve personal development, improve socialisation skills and social cohesion.

Our partnerships enable us to support environmental and conservation issues whilst enhancing the natural environment of this community asset.

If you would like to book the barges for charity or corporate activities, have young people to refer or you are interested in working on the canal as a volunteer please contact enquiries@jamesuk.org.

JAMES has an IDVA specifically to support children and young people at risk of domestic abuse, or who have experienced domestic abuse.

The Young Person’s IDVA helps and provides client led, person centred support to children and young people who have witnessed or suffered domestic abuse. We offer age-appropriate domestic abuse awareness and safety planning to incorporate the vastly different risks posed to children and young people in today’s multi-media society. IDVAs provide emotional and practical advice, guidance, and support to help the client and their family to become and remain safe. They will seek ways to empower the individual to make positive, safe choices and they will liaise with other professionals on a person’s behalf. These are a few things we can do:

• Advice and support to young victims around their safety
• Support around emotional wellbeing
• Support with accessing housing, financial support.
• Advocacy and support for young people around their understanding of domestic abuse and healthy relationships.
• Risk assessment and expert safety planning and advice
• Information giving and signposting
• Support in mediating and engaging with other services
• Attending court for both civil and criminal matters and legal appointments and liaising with the criminal justice system
• Support around understanding domestic abuse and healthy relationships. This can be 1:1 or a group setting.

The support is usually 1:1 support. The IDVA will contact the client and meet with them either in school, college or in another safe place to discuss what is happening. The support lasts, on average, 3 months and enables clients to progress towards their long-term goals and become empowered.

A referral requires consent from the individual: verbal or written before making a referral to the service. Contact IDVA@jamesuk.org for more information or a referral form