The demand for counselling services for children and young people (CYP) who have experienced sexual abuse has been steadily increasing over the last few years, and as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted the number of CYP referrals surged by over 50%. WMRSASC maintains effective referral pathways including telephone and child-friendly online tools to make contact, resulting in over 170 referrals each year. Early intervention is preferable and can prevent children and young people developing unhealthy coping strategies. Because of large in-roads in growing its capacity to provide early intervention through educational programming, WMRSASC is increasingly experiencing new referrals for support from parents, teachers, social workers, and young people themselves.

We would like to employ a full-time specialist CYP counsellor to support the increasing volume of referrals for support, including conducting assessments, child protection safeguarding, and counselling sessions. We are looking to increase our capacity to support our clients through the addition of a CYP counsellor to work with our established, dedicated team. Each CYP counsellor supports 20 children at a time, with each client receiving 10-15 sessions before the desired outcomes are achieved. Over the course of twelve months, at least 60 children will have either received all sessions or started their counselling support.