School Counsellor

6 hours per week / £33,130 per annum pro rata / Permanent – term time only / Working one day week, to be discussed at interview

Our mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be. We do this by providing a safe home, increasing life skills and self-confidence, and improving emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Established in 1996, Dialogue School Counselling is a BACP accredited school counselling service covering Sussex and Surrey. Dialogue has built an excellent reputation with schools, professionals and commissioners and the service has developed and expanded over the years, now operating across Brighton & Hove, East and West Sussex, and Surrey.

We are recruiting for a qualified counsellor with experience of working with primary school age children and liaising with parents to join our team and deliver the school counselling service at St. Margaret's CE Primary School in Rottingdean, East Sussex.

We are seeking a qualified counsellor who is passionate about making a difference to lives of the children they work with. You will have a keen interest in and experience of working with children of primary school age.

Key responsibilities

• Run a suitable appointment system flexible to the needs of the school, offering students appropriate assessments and counselling appointments
• Manage the tight time boundaries of the role and the often complex and varied workload
• Liaise with school staff over referrals, waiting lists and appointments
• Carry out initial clinical and risk assessments and establish appropriate referral pathways with other services where appropriate. Continually assess risk throughout each student’s counselling.
• Follow YMCA Dialogue safeguarding procedures; to know who the School’s Designated Safeguarding Officer/s is and how to contact them when a safeguarding concern arises
• Work at all times within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
• Maintain individual membership of the BACP and to become a Registered Member (or other professional body such as HCPC)
• You will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff

ABOUT YOU: We know that there are great candidates who will not fit everything described, or who have important skills we have not mentioned. If that is you, please do not hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

Qualifications, knowledge, and experience

• You will have a Counselling or Psychotherapy qualification, minimum Level four and ideally Level six, and two years’ post qualifying experience in individual counselling or therapy with young people. This will include working with risk issues
• You will also have a sound understanding of child protection and vulnerable adult safeguarding issues, policies, and procedures
• You will have proven experience in safeguarding children and young people; responding to, managing, and referring safeguarding issues
• You will have a BACP Membership; BACP Registered or Accredited. Or other professional body e.g. HCPC
• You will have a keen interest in working with children and will be familiar with using creative therapeutic approaches, along with experience of working in a school setting