School Counsellor

4 hours per week term-time only / £33,130 per annum pro rata / permanent / ideally working on Thursdays but could accept Tuesdays or Fridays.

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.

We are seeking a qualified counsellor for the Dialogue service at St Martin's C of E Primary School in Brighton. We are seeking a 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. You will be working with a range of clients within the Dialogue Thresholds and undertaking Dialogue assessments with parents.

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

If you re enthusiastic about this opportunity but your experience doesn t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway and demonstrate how your experience is transferrable. You may be just the right candidate.

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