Our school counselling service is 
provided by Sharon Howard (SH Counselling). Sharon provides confidential, independent one to one counselling sessions, or if required, group work for children. This is to promote emotional health and wellbeing and to enable children to develop a resilience to help them cope with difficulties they may face.
Sessions
Each session lasts for approximately one hour, usually starting with six sessions. At the end of the six sessions a review is carried out to see whether further sessions are needed.
SH Counselling Service Responsibility
- To provide a confidential counselling service for children
- Manage a clinical caseload within the BACP ethical framework
- Keep case records on each counselling session in a secure place in accordance with the DATA Protection Act 1998
- Liaise with named school contact Mrs Ramshaw or Mrs Gill on a regular basis
- To refer to child protection policies and to the designated safeguarding lead within school should any safeguarding concerns arise
Confidentiality
Confidentiality will be maintained by SH Counselling Services to ensure that children’s rights are not breached. In exceptional circumstances, where the child is deemed to be at risk of harm to themselves or others, this confidentiality may need to be broken, and where possible they will be notified. The counsellors first port of call is the designated safeguarding lead Mrs Gill. This is to ensure that the health and wellbeing of the child is protected.
Availability of the Service
If you feel that your child would benefit from one to one sessions or group work please contact the school office or speak to their class teacher. They will then pass the information onto the relevant staff who will contact you.
Facilities
To ensure that children feel safe and secure during their counselling, school have a dedicated room set aside for sessions. To avoid disturbances the counsellor may put a sign on the door to ensure therapeutic sessions are not interrupted.
Parent / Carer Consent
SH Counselling Services will:
- Obtain parent / carer consent prior to a child receiving counselling
- If needed, have an initial meeting or telephone conversation with parents / carers should they wish to share any concerns
- Explain to parents what type of counselling will be delivered and advise them that the counsellor will only work with issues that the child presents
Referral Procedures
Referrals can be made by parents, class teacher, head teacher, special educational needs coordinator or from outside agencies.
Measuring Outcomes
To monitor the success of the work between counsellor and child, SH Counselling Services will ask the child (depending on their level of understanding), teacher and parents / carers to complete a ‘Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire’ at the beginning and the end of the counselling process. This is to evaluate the overall benefit that the counselling has had on the child.
