Empowering school counsellors: Influencing policy to improve CYP support across a multi academy trust
My view

After viewing my role as a school counsellor, as part of the consultation period, I was allowed to provide feedback.

I was grateful to have been given this chance as I was aware from seeing previous roles advertised and the application process, that important criteria needed to be included, to reflect the experience, skills and training that counsellors working with children and young people need to have acquired, to work ethically, safely and competently with this client group.

Having completed specialist CYP counselling training in addition to my core training, I am passionate about the need for a deep understanding of the differences in working with these client groups, and the young people we work with deserve to have an experienced and competent counsellor working with them.

For example, the CYP course I attended provided in-depth training on teenage brain development and the stages of adolescence.  It covered our legal obligations and legislation, and we learnt about the importance of offering creative materials and strategies as interventions, which are all important elements of this role.

I quickly responded to the offer of providing feedback, and shared how I thought additional essential criteria, such as having the young person’s qualification already or being willing to work towards it, and further safeguarding training and additional hours post qualification should be included. 

Having the Â鶹ԭ´´ school-based guidance as a resource to attach and reference undeniably contributed to the eventual outcome. School leadership teams may not be aware of this guidance, and it can be used as a valuable tool and resource in setting up or developing and improving practice in current counselling services in schools.

Using the guidance also facilitated personal growth, supporting me to feel confident in communicating our profession to colleagues within different roles and positions at school.

A few weeks passed and to my absolute delight, a new edited person specification and job description dropped into my (and all student counsellors) inbox – across our Multi Academy Trust (MAT), incorporating all of the recommendations within the guidance – the qualifications, the additional hours, training and experience required!

I was genuinely so excited, to have been able to use my voice in this way and to have influenced this decision-making process, especially for the children and young people accessing counselling across one of the 35 schools within our MAT, currently and in the future.

One of our MAT’s core strategies underpinning and at the heart of our culture and ethos is to remove disadvantage, promote inclusion and champion the success and life chances of all children. Our Academy serves a community where many of our students come from areas that feature in the top 1% of the country for deprivation.

Counselling CYP is challenging work, we see students waiting for or unable to access CAMHS, we see students who are distressed and displaying risky behaviours, and we see students from complex and traumatised families.

To have had the opportunity to provide and highlight areas of the guidance – which led to these changes has felt like a great personal achievement and on a wider scale has positively impacted the future workforce and ultimately the CYP accessing counselling in our trust.

Plus feeling heard and validated whilst also raising the profile of school counsellors and distinguishing our work as specialist practitioners, feels fantastic!