Our Services

Please note that we are currently not providing placements for student counsellors/therapists

A qualified counsellor/therapist for one (or more) day(s) per week, working with up to 5 clients for up to 50 minutes per session (a half day service may be negotiated). Referrals would be expected to be made in conjunction with the counsellor/therapist to monitor their appropriateness. It may be possible to allocate a time or times to a parent or staff member.

A qualified counsellor/therapist is able to offer a bespoke counselling service for primary, secondary and special needs schools . Utilising a qualified counsellor offers a number of advantages; they can work with a wider range of students including those who present more complex issues such as students who are identified as being at risk. A qualified counsellor brings a wider breadth of experience and range of skills and can work with you to develop a service which fits more precisely to your needs. They are also well placed to provide a whole school approach which might for example include liaison with and support of staff who are involved with managing and supporting challenging students. A service staffed with a qualified counsellor can offer continuity and the scope to develop your service to fit with your school's changing needs, year on year.

This service includes:

*The recruitment of suitable counsellors/therapists with experience of working with Counselling Children and Young People (CCYP)

*Counsellors/therapists would work for 35 out of the 39 days/weeks of the year for either a half or full day, or parts thereof

*End of therapy reports

*DBS check is completed/updated

*Counsellors/therapists are members of a professional organisation eg BACP UKCP

*A staff meeting for the school on a counselling related topic.

*Management of the counsellor/therapist in conjunction with the school

*Managerial support and liaison for the service, including regular meetings with the school link person. NB Extra meetings with outside agencies, parents etc may be counted as additional hours.

*Provide additional staff training relevant to working with CCYP

*Evidence outcomes (where relevant) with:

SDQ http://www.sdqinfo.org/ and

Psychlops http://www.psychlops.org.uk/index.html

*Audit/evaluate the service through meeting clients, headteachers, governors, DLPs, parents and counsellors/therapists where appropriate.

Reflective Supervision for School Staff

What is Reflective Supervision?

Supervision offers a supportive space for practitioners to think about their work. By sharing your practice, thoughts and feelings with a supervisor, you can explore, review and engage in ongoing development.

The discussions which take place in supervision are confidential, promoting a trusting relationship in which issues can be explored in a way which is not possible in more public settings, where the immediate demands of roles can be constraining. During supervision, you may think about specific situations which are proving challenging as well as considering broader issues and themes. Different domains of experience can be thought about, shedding light on current situations and challenges. For example, consideration of your personal and professional identity, your individual values and assumptions, the question of ‘what makes you tick at this time?’, can offer insights. Along with this, stepping back and viewing the dynamics of relationships can promote insight and inform practice. Supervision can also be a space to view the wider context and culture in which you are operating, including the nature of the organisation and the inevitable impact of ongoing change or pressures on this organisational system. This perspective may include reflection on the impact of the socio-political environment, including that of the parents and children in your school as well as wider society. Through supervision, we gain insight into how, as individuals we affect the wider setting and conversely, how what appears to be outside the individual is profoundly impactful at an individual level.

CCaT and supervision

CCaT has been providing counselling services staffed by trainee and qualified counsellors within primary and secondary schools across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire since 2007. Each year the clinical practice of our placement counsellors is supervised in-house by our supervision team, who themselves have a wealth of experience providing therapeutic services in schools, supporting both students and staff. As such, they are insightful about the wide range of issues and challenges which impact school staff at different levels and in all roles. In addition to being qualified therapists, members of our team have undertaken specialist training in clinical supervision, working with children and young people, systemic approaches, leadership and management and in group work practice and group analysis, respectively.

Some of the ways that supervision can support practice in a school context

Providing a thinking space away from the ongoing pressures of a busy school environment
Increasing self-awareness and insight through reflective practice
Promoting understanding of others to inform working relationships, decision making and actions
Helping to develop a reflective stance which can be integrated into the busy, day to day operational role, to improve relationships and outcomes
Providing a ‘third person’ perspective through the feedback of the supervisor who is outside the practitioners’ immediate place of work
Integration of a therapeutically informed perspective when considering children, families and staff
Generating new perspectives which enable creative problem solving
Offering support at an individual level enhances ongoing development of a supportive work culture

In the new inspection framework, Ofsted inspectors will be looking at how schools consider staff well-being under the leadership and management judgement. School Inspection Handbook (Ofsted, 2019) p64 which includes effective staff supervision. Staff supervision has been brought into much greater focus in the new Ofsted Framework and is named as one of the signs of successful safeguarding arrangements:

“Staff and other adults receive regular supervision and support if they are working directly and regularly with children and learners whose safety and welfare are at risk”. Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings, Ofsted, 2019 p10.

Effective supervision in particular for all key safeguarding leaders within settings is vital. The most recent Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) says: ‘Designated practitioner roles… should be given sufficient time, funding, supervision and support to fulfil their child welfare and safeguarding responsibilities effectively....’ p56