Children spend approximately 190 days of each year at school.  It is a huge part of their lives.  For some this is a fully enjoyable experience, for others this is a struggle.  A space in school to express feelings with encouragement and support, can really go a long well to boost a young person's wellbeing and relationship with school and academic work.

Offering counselling provisions in your school can be beneficial in a number of different ways:

• It negates the need for a child to absent from school in order to attend an appointment. 
• It is a familiar and safe space for the child, which may alleviate some of the nerves of attending a therapy appointment. 
• It cuts down on vast waiting lists, enabling children to be seen much sooner than CAMHS waiting times for instance.
• The therapist can work alongside your current pastoral team, complementing the service you provide.

The Therapist Provides

• An introductory assessment meeting with parents/carers of the client.
• Introductory meeting with class teacher, or significant staff member in client's school life.
• Minimum number of counselling sessions (20 recommended).
• Ending meeting with parents/carers.
• Ending meeting with teacher/school staff member.
• The counsellor will provide play and creative equipment to use in ways that will explore mental health and wellbeing with the client.

(When working therapeutically with children, it is important for the counsellor to take the time to set the client at ease and build connection.  The first sessions often focus on this before moving into deeper work.  It is recommended that each client has a minimum of two terms, or 20 sessions, with a counsellor in order to maintain a consistent routine and work through any issues.  The number of sessions will be agreed prior to work starting, but held under review, as one child may need longer, whilst another may need less.)

The School provides:

Working with a counsellor is a collaborative process.  In order for the service to be effective, schools will to provide:

• A safe and secure room that is a confidential space, consistently available each week.
  • The counselling process requires consistency and predictability in order to create a trusted and safe space - for this reason the space used for counselling must be the same each week.  Whilst we appreciate that situations may arise where a space is temporarily unavailable, these should be infrequent and avoided as much as possible. 
  • The counsellor can transport their equipment each week, but it may be helpful to store some equipment in school if there is adequate space to do so. There can be further discussion around this when we meet to discuss your requirements.
  • As work is creative, paints and glues may be used.  The counsellor will need access to a sink in order to clean equipment.

• A space to safely store children's creative works from week to week.
  • As part of the therapeutic process, children may create art works or images they may want to refer back to over time.  This work is kept in a box/file at the school, until all sessions have finished with the child.  At this time the child can choose whether to take their creations home, or the counsellor can take them to be destroyed.  When working with multiple children it is impractical to transport this work to, and from, location.  For this reason the work will need to be stored in school and a location will need to be provided for this. 

• Designated staff member(s) (typically a SENco or Designated Safeguarding Lead), onsite at same time as counsellor.
  • At least one school staff member will be required to liaise with the counsellor and act as representative for the counselling process.  This is typically a DSL or SENco.  They will be required to collate referrals and approach parents, introducing the service and collecting referral information and parental consent (forms will be provided for this), prior to work beginning. 
  • The same staff member(s) will need to be available to discuss any safeguarding concerns that may arise, and take these forward using schools own policies and procedures. 

• Space to meet with parents of children once at beginning of work, and again at end of work
  
  • With primary age children, it is beneficial for the counsellor to meet with parents/guardians, prior to work beginning to gain background information and make parents aware of the counselling process.  This meeting will need to take place on school premises and space allowed for this, often this is the same space that counselling takes place.

• A meeting with child's teacher at the beginning and end of the work
  
  • As with parents, it is beneficial to have insight from a child's teacher before, during and after, the counselling process. 
  • We appreciate a Teacher's time can be stretched and aim to squeeze these in at their convenience.  Often, these are short meetings held at the start and end of the work, and can often be squeezed into a lunch break, after school, or PPA time.  Here we collect any aims for work or information around how the child is in school, that may be helpful for the counsellor to know.
  • If a teacher has any information about incidents in the week, time can be made available to discuss these, or they can be fed back to the counsellor through the designated staff member.