Counsellor/ Support OfficerinStoke-on-TrentinStoke-on-TrentPUBLISHED TUE 11 FEB 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a qualified and experienced counsellor to join the Staff Support and Counselling Service as a Counsellor Support Officer.

Part time, 15 hours per week covering Thursdays and Fridays.

Band 5, £29,970 - £36,483 per annum pro rata.

This is a busy, highly effective and respected department offering short term brief therapy/counselling and coaching support to staff across the North Staffordshire area, as well as other contracts outside of the area. In addition, the service provides training, group support, team building, mediation, stress management (including Work Related Stress Audits) and critical incident stress management (CISM) support.

The service supports placements to counselling/therapy students, volunteers and as and when required associate counselling staff. The service also supports a range of Health and Wellbeing initiatives across the Trust, and you would be expected to be able to participate and contribute to those initiatives. You will be expected to be involved in all aspects of the service delivery as outlined above.

You will have a key role in the counselling and support service and will be contributing to the smooth running of services; and adherence to BACP's code of ethics & practice as well as At Risk Protocols. You will also have a clinical counselling case load and will also be responsible for ensuring safe delivery of services including in house training for staff. You will also need to have an interest in the activity of the service and how this can be presented to our customer base in a meaningful and productive manner.

The service also supports a full commitment to the health and wellbeing of NHS staff; therefore, you will also be expected to be able to deliver programmes to meet the needs of the staff ensuring topics such as mindfulness, loss, stress and other supportive programmes.

About us

The Staff Support and Counselling Service is a busy department offering short term counselling/coaching support to staff across the North and South Staffordshire area as well as other contracts outside of these areas.

The service also provides training, group support, team building, mediation, stress management (including Work Related Stress Audits) and critical incident stress management support.

The service supports placements to counselling/therapy students, volunteers and as and when associate staff and the post holder will be significantly involved in supporting thoseroles, this will involve professional support and also administration and documentation support.

The post holder will be expected to have the confidence to be able to work unsupervised at times and will also have a level of experience to be able to complete and deliver counselling for a range of issues to both individuals and groups.

The post holder will also need to have a good range of communication skills as well as a sound knowledge of Microsoft Office and in particular the maintenance and/or development of information databases around student activity and recruitment.

Key Duties/Responsibilities

1) To conduct an Initial Assessment (using CORE 34 outcome measures) with new clients to ascertain their suitability for short-term counselling (between 6 to 8 sessions) and to develop therapy plans to support their needs. To provide appropriate client reports to support referrals from organisations and Occupational Health Services as required and in line with Service Level Agreements.

2) Provide professional counselling and psychotherapeutic service to clients accessing the service in accordance with need and within the protocols and procedures established for the service. The nature of presenting issues vary according to the reason for the referral but there is an expectation that there will be times when clients will present highly distressed, emotionally charged and potentially expressing suicide or self-harming intentions. The range of issues are not wholly limited to but can include stress, anxiety, depression, relationship issues, work place issues, bullying, self-harm, loss and past life experiences i.e. abuse etc. It is therefore expected that the post holder will have the resilience and professionalism to manage the impact of this and to seek appropriate support via supervision and/or case management.

Be responsible for effectively managing their own workload, with an expectation to remain intensely focussed during each client assessment. The post holder will work collaboratively as a member of the Clinical team, managing all aspects of the counselling waiting list, including decisions around prioritising clients.

Co-ordinate the waiting list and appointment system for other counsellors and provide support, regular in-house supervision and mentoring when needed.

3) To assist clients to find alternative sources of help through either their GP or through the voluntary sector if it is judged the Staff Counselling Service is not appropriate to meet their needs or they have longer term therapy needs. This will require excellent communication skills from the post holder in order to process highly complex, distressing and sensitive information and to suggest therapies that the client may be resistant to.

4) To work with clients in ways which respect their values, personal circumstances and resources.

5) To adhere to the BACP Code of Ethics.

6) To ensure that they attend Supervision in line with the BACP recommendation but as an absolute minimum of 1 hours per month.

7) To maintain accurate records and administrative procedures including on-line records and Risk Assessments using CORE Net, in-house databases, student records, student and management pathways

8) To read and abide by the At Risk Protocol for Clients issued by the Service. To ensure robust action plans for clients presenting with Risk Issues and to refer to appropriate agencies where appropriate.

9) To ensure that counselling support is provided in line with the Staff Support & Counselling Procedures

and Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures.

10) To maintain diary appointments and administration/student systems within the department as appropriate and to provide additional telephone support to the administration team to cover holidays or busy times within the service.

11) To ensure that client caseloads are manageable and appropriate to the level and experience of the counsellor in line with the BACP Code of Ethics and under the guidance of Service or Deputy Service Managers.

12) To attend case management/group supervision and CPD sessions as appropriate.

13) To attend annual Appraisal.

14) To maintain registration of the BACP and provide annual renewal evidence to the department as appropriate.

15) To input and collate data/statistics on service use and to assist in the input and production of reports using the Core Net Clinical Management Package, including databases and other packages supporting students and client within the placement. To ensure that all Information Governance guidelines are adhered to and that service user records are recorded appropriately and safely in line with Trust Policies.

16) To input, create and present work related stress audits in line with the Health and Safety Executive Management Standards and the Trusts Work Related Stress Policy and to provide advice and support to Teams on the results.

17) To assess and deliver team support sessions on a range of issues including supporting traumatic or distressing situations and incidents in the form of critical incident stress debrief or defusing skills, conflict, change, relationship restoration, stress etc. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM Mitchell/Dyregrov Model) Support sessions often involve exposure to distressing facts in relation to the events particularly involving self-harm, suicide and death.

18) To assist Service Manager in reviewing and producing in-house protocols and standards to ensure that the service maintains high levels of professionalism and operates within appropriate ethics and guidelines.

19) To participate in clinical audits on a range of issues including clinical effectiveness, maintenance of safe practice, waiting and response times, student performances and risk management.

20) To provide in-house training and support to students and volunteers within the service. This will include providing mentoring support to student counsellors/psychotherapists as well as contributing towards supporting students on placement and providing a robust induction programme for them. This includes liaising with education providers to ensure that protocols and procedures stipulated by them is adhered to and maintained by students on placement. Ensuring that appropriate checks and documentation are provided and checked in line with protocols of the service and the Trust.

21) To deliver pre-written training workshops and use knowledge to develop appropriate informative workshops as identified by Service Manager and to develop appropriate training topics e.g. stress, change, resilience.

22) To provide support to the Service Manager for securing, managing and maintaining Service Level Agreements with existing and new potential customer base.

23) To provide support to Trust Health and Wellbeing initiatives e.g. attendance at Health and Wellbeing Meetings, and supportive other Health and Wellbeing events.

24) To provide mediation and facilitated meetings as identified by the service. Mediation involves working with highly charged emotion including anger, aggression and frustration therefore a level of calm and skilled mediation skills are required.

25) Undertake any other duties commensurate with the role as requested by the Service Manager

Specialist/technical requirements

The role will require a recognised Professional Diploma or equipment in the field of counselling/psychotherapy and a good sound knowledge or therapy tools and assessment documents. An excellent level of Microsoft Office knowledge and an ability to be able to maintain and create record systems to support both clinical and student activity. Good communication skills together with an ability to be able to make professional clinical judgements and to recognise Risk Assessment processes and packages to support clients is essential. A knowledge of requirements to fulfil counselling training is considered a key knowledge essential as part of this role.