School life
We’ll ask about subjects, peers, teachers, the school environment, and additional support, as how a young person experiences school will greatly affect how they manage challenges and whether they feel supported working through issues.
Listening Service
A confidential 1-to1 service in secondary schools supporting students with low-level concerns
How the service works
In the young person’s first appointment with one of our school-based Wellbeing Practitioners, an initial assessment will be completed. The focus of this assessment is to introduce the young person to our service whilst gathering information on how to best support them. We also complete a risk assessment during this session and collect minimum data for reporting purposes.
The young person does not complete the form themselves; we collect the information in a conversational manner and cover various topics to help us ascertain how best we can support them. We also use questionnaires and set goals for the sessions which usually last between 4 to 6 appointments in addition to the assessment.
Jump to assessment topicsOur Wellbeing Practitioners help students to manage their feelings with concerns such as exam pressure, friendship worries, bullying, social media difficulties and low self-esteem.
Safeguarding
We take very seriously the protection of children and young people, and we have stringent safeguarding procedures and responsibilities which focus on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.
We define safeguarding as; protecting children from abuse and maltreatment, preventing harm to children’s health or development, ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care, and taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes
During the initial assessment, our Wellbeing Practitioners will ensure the young person understands under what circumstances and when information would be shared with others, for example is there is a concern around the young person’s safety or to others.
Confidentiality and safeguarding
During the initial assessment, our Wellbeing Practitioners will ensure the young person understands under what circumstances and when information would be shared with others, for example is there is a concern around the young person’s safety or to others.
Clinical Professionalism
Our Wellbeing Practitioners have undertaken safeguarding, risk and child protection training as well as a Level 2 counselling skills qualification. They come from a range of backgrounds including teaching and social work. They receive weekly supervision with one of our qualified therapists and can escalate specific cases to senior members of our clinical team if there is a need.
Our charity is also an organisational member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and adheres strictly to its ethical framework. As an organisation, we follow and frequently surpass National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines around supervision for our therapists and counsellors.
The Listening Service operates within the parameters of the safeguarding policies of individual schools and our own clinical governance.
What the initial assessment focuses upon
The focus of the initial assessment is to introduce the young person to our service whilst gathering information on how best we can support them. We will also ask why they feel they may benefit from our support. Our Wellbeing Practitioners will touch upon issues noted in the young person’s initial referral and try to support them sharing their struggles openly. In some cases, the young person will have lots of information to share, and others may struggle to verbalise the challenges they are facing. Some young people may decline to answer some questions, which is absolutely fine, and we will look to be aware of any risk indicators during subsequent sessions.
See confidentiality and safeguarding
Home life
We’ll ask who they live with, family relationships and pets, as it’s important to understand who a young person lives with/is supported by at home, and who they may talk with about issues they are facing. Some family relationships are more challenging, and this is an opportunity to chat these things through with an external person.
Physical health
We’ll ask about diet, exercise, any illnesses, or medication, and whether they are under the care of any professionals such as Social Services, CAMHS, Youth Listening Service etc, as we want to support the young person to cope with or overcome issues. In some cases, their challenges can be exacerbated by physical health such as lack of sleep, minimal physical activity or medical conditions, and we want to ensure that the support we provide does not interfere with support being offered by other services.
Mental Health service involvement
We check if the young person has received mental health support previously, or if they are currently receiving support. It’s important that if they are already receiving support from another service, our work doesn’t interfere with this.
Self-harm or deliberate injury
Some young people may self-harm as a way of coping with difficult emotions, and if they disclose this, we will discuss this further and our safeguarding procedures will be followed. See Safeguarding section above.
Suicidal thinking/intent
We take the safety of young people very seriously, and whilst asking these questions does not increase the risk of suicide occurring, we will follow our safeguarding procedures in these cases.
Significant trauma
Being advised of any recent or historic significant trauma will help to inform our support recommendations.
Alcohol or drug use.
Alcohol or drugs can be used to cope with issues, and we want to ensure the right level of support is provided if this is the case. Frequent use of drugs and/or alcohol can also leave young people at risk of harm and therefore our safeguarding procedures will be followed when required.
Abusive relationships
We may phrase this question as “Is there anyone you feel unsafe with?” as often, this is straightforward for young people to answer but also gives them opportunity to disclose any concerns.
Relationship/Sexual Activity
If the young person is in a romantic relationship, we maintain an awareness of topics related to this to ensure consent and understanding in a relationship context are understood.
Risky behaviour
We ask this to determine whether young people are making risky decisions that are detrimental to their safety.
Criminal activity
Some young people may be involved with the police or youth offending, and we need to ensure we offer the appropriate level of support. In some cases, this gives the young person an opportunity to disclose any concerns they may have about criminal activity.
Social life and friends
We’ll ask about hobbies, interests, friends, partners, transitions between schools and the COVID lockdown periods, as young people will often chat about the important people in their lives and it’s helpful to have some background to this. When young people are struggling it’s helpful to focus on, and encourage participation in, activities that they enjoy.
Extremism/Grooming
We want to ensure that young people can share any concerns around being isolated from others (purposefully), grooming (online/in person) or extremism.