Brighter Horizons 4U

History

Brighter Horizons4u was originally set up in 2008 by Linda, Karen and Liz.
Whilst working voluntary with adolescents we identified the need to engage at an earlier age.

Research

According to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Inquiry research carried out by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) indicates that school-based counselling services are feasible to implement and are highly acceptable to young people, pastoral care coordinators and teachers (Cooper, 2004, 2006b, in press; Cooper, Hough, & Loydd, 2005; Pattison et al., 2007).

State: “While referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are currently available for young people within secondary schools who meet the necessary assessment and diagnostic criteria, school-based counselling provisions are perceived by pastoral care staff and related professionals as an important additional resource: highly accessible; capable of responding quickly to young people’s mental health needs; and of particular value to emotionally distressed and/or ‘troubled’ young people who may not be appropriate for referral to educational or clinical psychologists.” (Cooper, 2006b).

Also states “These findings suggest that school-based counselling services may be an important form of ‘early intervention’ for mental health problems in children and young people: working with pre-syndromal emotional and interpersonal difficulties to prevent the onset of more severe, chronic and costly forms of psychological distress. Properly resourced school counselling services both in terms of finance and sufficient time are essential to be able to respond to children’s distress.”

Because of all these factors it was decided that the only way to ascertain the need for counselling within the primary schools and to show its value would be for us to complete a three month pilot scheme on a voluntary basis. This was evaluated at the end of the pilot and schools were then asked to buy in the service. Out of all the six schools that participated five bought in our services and are still with us. We also worked in conjunction with the Children’s Centres where parents were able to access the service.

Unique Service

We believe that Brighter Horizons4u are offering a unique service of bringing counselling services into schools in order to identify and assist children who may need added emotional support. We originally set up in response to a gap in services for children’s counselling within schools across the North West. In the future we will be looking to extend our services to the Liverpool and Knowsley area. According to research Liverpool is ranked as the most deprived local authority area in the country and Knowsley is ranked eighth, child poverty in Liverpool and Knowsley is particularly high.

Liverpool has three wards were children living in poverty is more than 90% (seven over 80%) and five Knowsley wards have more than 80% children living in poverty (Indices of Multiple Deprivation Affecting Children 2007, Department for Communities and Local Government).