The Counselling Service
Annual Report
2014/15
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Contents
Contents ........................................................................................................................... 2
Counselling Service Team .................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4
About the service .............................................................................................................. 4
Service Use ........................................................................................................................ 5
What we have done ........................................................................................................... 8
Staff counselling................................................................................................................ 9
Bradford College ............................................................................................................. 10
Equality monitoring ......................................................................................................... 12
Evaluation ....................................................................................................................... 12
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Counselling Service Team
Head of Service
Penelope Aspinall
Permanent staff (core team)
Yvonne Messenger, senior counsellor (0.6 fte)
Peter Wakefield, senior counsellor (0.5 fte)
Gill Barlow (previously Nina Wright), full-time counsellor
Sarah Farnell (previously Pip Mobbs), counsellor (0.6 fte)
Administrative Staff
Gilly Butcher, administrator, (0.55 fte)
Bharti Mistry, administrator (0.5 fte), previously Cathie Raw
Associates and trainees
In addition to paid permanent counsellors, we use a team of associates and trainees to
deliver the service. Associates are qualified counsellors who work on a voluntary basis in
order to gain more experience and accrue the necessary hours in order to be eligible for
BACP accreditation (or equivalent). Trainees are counsellors in training who, as an essential
part of their training, need to be on a placement in order to gain the necessary experience
as a course requirement. Both associates and trainees are provided with appropriate
extensive supervision, training, mentoring and support in order to ensure that they
provide the best service for our clients.
In 2013/14 we had twelve associates and eleven trainees in the team, although three of
our associates left during the course of the year. We have, however, reviewed this practice
and are focussing on creating a smaller team of volunteers for 2014/15, consisting of six
trainees and seven associate counsellors.
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Introduction
2014/15 was another busy year, which also saw a lot of change. In total, 1059 clients
registered with the service, we saw 871 individual clients and offered 4982 appointments,
very similar to the previous year. We further developed our provision for staff, making
the service more responsive and appropriate to the needs of the University and college
staff. Cathie Raw moved to a new post in March, Nina Wright retired at the end of August
and Pip Mobbs left in July. Their hard work, experience and expertise will be missed but
we are delighted to have two new members of the counselling team, Gill Barlow and Sarah
Farnell. Bharti Mistry came to the rescue in terms of our administrative post when she was
seconded over from the Academic Quality and Partnerships Office for half the week.
About the service
The Counselling service continues to provide counselling and psycho-educational training
for the students and staff of the University of Bradford and Bradford College. We are a
busy service, and in order to accommodate the numbers of clients and minimise waiting
times, we usually offer a brief therapy model of up to four sessions in the first instance,
after a 25 minute intake interview to assess need and/or offer immediate help. We will
always endeavour to extend this contract when appropriate, in cases of risk, for example,
or where the work cannot be usefully or ethically contained in four sessions. Most
counselling takes place at our premises in Student Central, although we do run a service
where students can be seen for pre-booked Intake appointments, at Bradford College
three times a week. We stopped our service at the Bradford Student Health Centre as it
was very under-used and we felt that the resources could be more productively allocated.
We also developed links with FLM and have reintroduced our service at Emm Lane, so that
clients can be seen for pre-booked Intake appointments there. Prospective clients need to
access the service through an on-line registration form; they will then be invited to book
an intake interview.
Another initiative was to bring together the Faculty Welfare contacts. We had a useful
meeting in April where they were able to express common concerns and needs. Following
on from that we have set up a Reflective Practice Group, which will aim to meet regularly in
the Counselling Service, facilitated by Peter Wakefield.
In addition, we ran a series of psycho-educational workshops for students on issues such
as sleep, managing exam stress etc as well as contributing to the People Development
programme for staff and training for course reps and sabbatical officers.
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Service Use
Headline Statistics
2013/14
2014/15
Individual Clients registered
949
1059
Individual Clients seen
877
871
Appointments provided
5325
4982
Appointments attended
3264
3244
Workshop attendees
315
185
Figure 1: Service use
Workshops Service Use
16%
College staff
3%
College
Students
14%
University
students
57%
University
Staff
10%
As can be seen in figure 1, the majority of clients are University students. Numbers show
a slight increase over last year. We are concerned about the numbers of appointments
missed due to no shows and cancellations. No shows decreased after we introduced text
reminders before every session in November but the high rate of missed appointments still
remains to be a challenge. Also, when looking at the figures, it needs to be recognised
that some clients attend for more than one contract in a year. There were 188 (17%)
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clients who registered but did not actually use the service (ie they did not attend or
respond to an offer of a first appointment).
Demographics
The majority of our clients are female (64%). This is typical of counselling services across
the sector.
Other
No
Gender
1%
response
2%
Male
34%
Female
63%
In terms of ethnicity, just under half (48%) of our clients describe themselves as white. 30%
of clients are Asian, 11% Black or Black British and a further 11% describing themselves as
either ‘mixed’(4%) or ‘other’(7%). This reflects the rich diversity of the university and the
client group that we work with.
Ethnicity
Other
7%
Asian
30%
White
48%
Black/Black
British
Mixed 11%
4%
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Looking at all our clients, 79% are from the UK, with 17% from EU or International and no
response from 4%. This changes slightly when we look at only clients who are university
students. Here 23% are International or EU, representing the demographic of the University
as a whole.
No response
All clients
4%
EU
8%
International
9%
UK
79%
No
Response
University Clients
3%
International
13%
EU
10%
UK
74%
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What we have done
In addition to one-to-one counselling, the service has been involved in training and
outreach initiatives.
Group work
The service saw 185 students and staff as part of its group-work programme. The people
we saw were a mixture of previous clients and entirely new contacts. The programme was
revised to include Mindfulness for Staff, which has proved very popular. We introduced a
monthly lunchtime ‘Space to Breathe’ for staff, which we will continue to run in 2015/16.
The Assertiveness workshops for students and for staff have been well attended
.
Subject
Audience
Times
Attendees Duration
run
(total)
(hrs)
Assertiveness
Students
3
34
1.5
Culture Shock
International
1
2
1
students
Mindfulness
Students
3
21
1
Panic-Free Exams
Students
3
20
1
Relaxation
Students
2
9
1
Setting Boundaries Course reps
2
16
2
Training events
The service has delivered training packages across three distinct areas.
Staff Development/People Development training packages: Managing Difficult
Conversations, Introduction to Assertiveness, Counselling & Communication Skills
and Managing Stress through Relaxation.
In-house training for Wardens, Security Staff, HR staff, SABS and Student Reps
covering topics including Understanding Boundaries, Communication Skills,
Assertiveness, Managing Stress through Relaxation, and Referral Procedures.
Monthly training to the team of trainee and associate counsellors on a variety of
themes and issues appropriate to our work with both students and staff clients.
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Subject
Audience
Times run
Attendees
Duration
(total)
(hrs)
Assertiveness
Staff
2
28
2
Counselling Skills1 Staff
2
18
3.5
Counselling Skills
Staff
1
10
3.5
2
A Mindfulness
Staff
1
10
1
Taster
A Space to Breathe Staff
2
18
1
CVS
Community
1
12
6
Voluntary
services Staff
Warden Training
Hall Wardens
1
7
2
Community Engagement
Over the last four years we have been developing our work with the Community Voluntary
Services, the umbrella body that supports all community and voluntary work in the
Bradford area.
This year they asked us to deliver a two day training open to all workers in the
participating agencies. The focus of the training was on Communication Skills,
Assertiveness and Managing Boundaries in Helping Roles.
Open days
We have focused on widening our participation and presence at university and college
open days this year, attending evening and weekend events. We have developed a more
interactive approach to engaging with students and staff. Our little bunches of
University of Bradford lavender proved particularly popular.
Staff counselling
150 staff members applied to the Counselling Service this year, 111 from the University
and 39 College staff. There was an even split between Academic (54) and Administrative
staff (55), WITH 18 Academic Related, 4 Ancillary and the remaining described as ‘Other’.
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105 of these clients were described as experiencing anxiety, depression, stress or a
combination of these and 57 (50%) saw this as work-related.
Building on from the improvements developed in 2013/14, we continued to further
enhance the staff provision by ensuring that each staff member who contacted the service
was offered the opportunity to talk with one of our senior counsellors on the telephone to
assess their needs and identify what they needed. This usually meant that staff would
not need to attend an Intake appointment and could be referred straight into counselling
with either a core team member or experienced associate. Using members of our highly
skilled experienced associate team is particularly beneficial where there might be a
potential boundary issue with a core team member having contact with the staff member
in other contexts.
In addition we have introduced a staff only drop-in at 8.30 on Friday mornings and run a
monthly lunchtime mindfulness session (Space to Breathe). This is bookable via the
People Development website.
As we are keen to provide a join-up approach to delivering the right kind of support for
students, we convened a meeting with the Faculty Welfare advisors to explore their needs
and concerns. Following on from this, we are now running a reflective practice group for
these staff members to share good practice and provide support for each other.
Bradford College
Overview of Service
Once again the service has been busy, with 168 students and 39 staff members
registering to use the service.
College Students
100
80
60
40
STUDENTS 2014/15
20
STUDENTS 2013/14
0
STUDENTS 2012/13
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This represents an increase in student numbers but a slight drop in staff using the
service. The move to the Madiba room has been especially successful with many students
choosing to have their Intake appointment at the college. We no longer run the service as
a drop-in. Clients will need to pre-book their Intake appointment if they wish to be seen
at the college. They can, of course, use the drop-in at the Counselling Service premises if
they wish to attend without an appointment.
College Staff
60
40
20
0
2014/15
2013/14
2012/13
Liaison with support staff
We value our good working relationship with all Bradford college staff with a pastoral
responsibility for students. We provide consultation for staff members concerned about a
student’s wellbeing and strive to work closely with student welfare advisors, the
safeguarding officer and mental health advisor.
Workshops
In addition to one to one counselling, college students have attended workshops on
Assertiveness, Managing Exam Stress and Improving Sleep. The advertising for this is now
working well through all available channels.
Publicity
The College have taken over producing their own leaflet for the counselling service which
is now much better. The internal electronic newsletters produced for both staff and
students are working well to disseminate information about the service and the
workshops on offer. The BACP-UC produced a short ‘Ted Talks’ style video promoting
College counselling services, which was put on the College website in June.
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Inductions and Open days
This year the service has taken a full part in the Induction programme for new students
and Open Days, in order to have a greater presence within the College. We also
successfully contributed to the Well Fair, with a stand aimed at increasing awareness of
the importance of looking after your mental health.
Equality monitoring
As with most counselling services, the majority of clients both students and staff are
female. We do, however, see a sizeable proportion of male clients who engage with and
benefit from using the service. We continue to monitor all aspects of the way we deliver
provision in order to ensure that the service feels accessible to all who might benefit from
using it.
Evaluation
As we found that we were getting very low return rates on the evaluation forms we sent
out by email at the end of counselling, we decided to change our approach. In April, we
introduced a simple feedback post card which clients can complete at the end of their
contract or at any time during their use of the service. The post card gives a quick and
easy snapshot of the client’s experience of the service as well as collected some data.
This has proved to be a popular way of getting feedback, which has been overwhelmingly
positive. In addition to this, we had a ‘snapshot week’ in the Spring and Summer terms
where every client of the service was invited to complete a questionnaire. People can also
give us feedback via our website. This proved very encouraging with 95% either strongly
(72%) agreeing or agreeing (23%) that that they had a positive experience or with the
Counselling Service.
As well as questions about client satisfaction with the service, we ask questions based on
the 2012 BACP-UC (Wallace, P 2012 BACP) research looking at retention and
employability. The following results, gathered through using a Bristol Online Survey,
show that for many of our clients, the counselling had a very strong impact on their
ability to stay at university, their academic performance, their student experience and
employability.
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To what extent would you say that counselling is:
1.
Helping you stay at university/college?
N/A this doesn't apply to me
Not at all
To a limited extent
One of many factors
An important factor
The most significant factor
0
20
40
60
80
100
2.
Helping you do better in academic work?
N/A this doesn't apply to me
Not at all
To a limited extent
One of many factors
An important factor
The most significan factor
0
20
40
60
80
100
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3.
Improving your overall experience of University/college?
N/A this doesn't apply to me
Not at all
To a limited extent
One of many factors
An important factor
The most significant factor
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
4.
Helping you develop skills that might be useful for future employment (eg building
resilience, understanding of others, managing difficult feelings better, increased
confidence/assertiveness)?
N/A this does not apply to me
Not at all
To a limited extent
One of many factors
An important factor
The most significant factor
0
20
40
60
80
214 responses
Postcard (61)
February Snapshot (47)
April Snapshot (47)
Previous system August – April (59)
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What the clients say about us (comments from feedback forms)
I feel more confident expressing my true emotions, believing in myself
and challenging negative thoughts about myself.
I am very grateful for this opportunity/facility, everything is helping
me, the sensitive welcoming environment. The professionalism and
friendly service is changing my life for the better. Thank you very
positive, helpful.
Making me learn about myself and challenge things in life. An
excellent and accessible service lovely environment, very useful
Come in sad, confused but now am sure of what I want and who I am.
Gave me strength to go on. Enabling me to not feel alone
The Service has helped me a great deal. It's always good to have a
smile to greet you when you walk into reception.
Helped me touch on difficult issues as I felt I could discuss things
without being judged. It helped me learn how to deal with frustration
& communicate my feelings effectively. I felt my counsellor understood
the difficulties I am facing, which is valuable as I have felt
misunderstood by people recently.
I have learnt a great deal about myself & have a better sense of how to
ask for help & work through issues.
Suggestions for improvement
More advertising at Uni would be good, I only found out about the
service for a friend
The entrance should be a little bit more discrete, I feel a bit
uncomfortable walking in with a lot of people looking at me.
Thank you for being there. It’s been fab. The waiting list is large
though. Given how helpful the service is, you'd think more counsellors
would be employed.
We take all feedback very seriously and where possible try and address
problems and concerns. We are extending our publicity for 2015/16,
planning to make more use of technology eg the UoB app and are open to
any suggestions about how we can reach greater numbers of people who
would benefit from our service, as well as break down any perceived stigma.
We have also made huge efforts to decrease waiting times, with more
efficient allocation of resources and systems. However, it is inevitable that
at times of high demand people will have to wait longer than they like. To
put it in perspective, though, it is very unusual for someone to have to wait
longer than three weeks for an ongoing counselling session (unless they
have very limited availability) whereas the wait for Improving Access to
Psychological Therapies (IAPT) NHS individual counselling in Bradford is
currently two to four months.
Further statistics on service use and evaluation can be obtained from the
Head of the Counselling Service.
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