Deputy Service Manager, Counselling

Join a team with a bold mission at Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind, we are dedicated to reshaping the landscape of mental health and emotional wellbeing in our community. We are growing our counselling service, and we will be offering more generalised counselling as well as our Self Harmony service which specialises in self-harm and self-injury reduction.

What You'll Do:

- Collaborative Leadership: Lead, inspire, and effectively manage a team of professionals to deliver exceptional mental health support and interventions.

- Innovation and Empowerment: Channel your passion into providing evidence-based interventions, elevating the mental health and emotional well-being of the people we serve, while opening doors to life's possibilities.

- Effective Partnerships: Ensure effective and appropriate communication with all individuals, staff, community agencies and partner organisations.

Why Join Us:

Impact Matters: Join a team where your work directly transforms lives and contributes to a healthier community.

Personal Growth: We offer professional development opportunities that will enrich your career and help shape the future of mental health services in Swindon.

Collaborative Culture: Work alongside like-minded individuals who share your passion for making a meaningful impact.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Contract and Services Management

• Informing the future direction and development of the Counselling Team including working closely with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Commissioners internally and externally of the organisation.
• Champion innovation and co-lead the implementation of enchantments to services, and support the implementation of change, best practice and continuous improvement.
• Develop the Swindon and Gloucestershire estate, exploring potential space in the local community, networking with other charities and local businesses to source suitable space to enable the growth and development of the counselling service.
• To manage a caseload of clients, offering sessions in line with the counselling service procedures and policies.
• Ensure counselling sessions and practice is carried out in accordance with the BACP framework and other ethical guidelines.
• Understand and build upon local assets and resources, to enable a holistic and flexible and flexible place-based support structures that are responsive to local needs.
• Develop the service model with a two-tier model of high and low risk, working effectively with the team, Service Manager and SLT.
• Ensure adequate professional supervision is arranged and attended by counsellors, including volunteers.
• Ensure all counsellors meet their allocated CPD hours per year.
• To screen all referrals including self-referrals and professional referrals and assess risk.
• To work closely with practitioners and informing them of when a client is due to exit and if additional support is required.
• To ensure agreed service standards are upheld and monitored using internal evaluations, user feedback, audits etc.

2. Effective Collaboration with External Agencies and Organisations

• Establish effective relationships with key referrers including the Primary Care Networks and Secondary Car Services in your locality, facilitating meaningful two-way dialogue with key stakeholders.
• To work closely with other staff within S&G Mind, including communicating any updates/concerns to practitioners involved with the person as well as internal MDT meetings.
• To build strong relationships with primary and secondary services in relation to smooth referral pathways and transitions for people.
• To extend external meetings/steering groups in relation to self-harm and suicide prevention.
• To build relationships with local colleagues and other training providers for future counselling placements.

3. Team Leadership

• Co- lead and develop your team in partnership with the Service Manager and Senior Leadership Team in delivering recovery-focused, high quality, safe and person-centred care, delivering great outcomes for people using services.
• Provide leadership to the operations of the team, monitoring workload, ensuring staff follow policies and procedures.
• Offer management support and supervision including Personal Development Reviews.
• To be involved with recruitment of new staff including participating on the interview panel and leading induction
• Ensure all counsellors are supported and developed through a job coaching, individual supervision, group supervision, and appraisals, identifying and promptly addressing learning and development needs.
• Ensure consistency, ethical practice and adherence to BACP (or other professional associations) and recommendations for the whole team.
• Monitor staff compliance with S&G Mind policies and procedures.
• Support staff and facilitate regular team meetings.
• Support with delivering debrief meetings and team meetings where required.
• To be involved with recruitment of new staff including participating on the interview panel and leading induction.
• To investigate any incidents reported by staff or people accessing services and follow up the recorded outcomes following S&G Mind policies and procedures.
• To explore complaints made to the Self Harmony Counselling contract and follow the relevant procedures and policies.
• To undertake investigations in line with relevant policies e.g. complaints policy, HR investigation.
• To ensure all counsellors are assessing risk and that risk is managed appropriately in line with the person s needs and policies/procedure of the service.
• Take part in the on-call support rota when required for services across Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind.

4. KPI s and Data Excellence

• To monitor and prepare stats and requested outcomes as needed.
• To maintain and manage own client record systems.
• To monitor data including number of sessions provided within the service and time of access.
• To utilise S&G Mind systems to capture, track and monitor performance.
• To manage and monitor the waiting lists, assessments and referral timescales, meeting targets set by management and SLT.
• Produce regular outcome reports demonstrating the effectiveness of the service and highlighting gaps in provision.
• To produce reports in relation to KPI s and actively look at ways to develop and improve the service.
• To review and monitor authorisation of any extension of sessions, exploring reasons and outcomes for additional sessions
• The role will also include supporting other areas of work and undertake other duties at Swindon & Gloucestershire Mind when needed.