SOLIHULL BEREAVEMENT COUNSELLING SERVICE (SBCS) REVIEW AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2013 2016 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Solihull Bereavement Counselling Service (SBCS) is a charity which provides specialist bereavement counselling services to people living or working in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, who experience problems in the normal process of coping with bereavement. Since 1987 SBCS has, with the support of funders from the NHS, Local Authority and charitable donations, provided an increasingly popular and cost-effective service, delivered by trained volunteers under professional supervision. As understanding of the value of talking therapies in bereavement increases so the potential for use of SBCS services continues to grow. This document includes a review of the current service and sets out SBCS priorities for continuing service improvements and proposed service developments over the next three years. Contents 1. Organisation Summary 1: Organisation Details 2.1 Solihull Bereavement Counselling Service 2.2 Ullswater House, Solihull Hospital, Lode Lane, Solihull, B91 2JL 2.3 0121 424 5103 2.4 bereavement.counselling@heartofengland.nhs.uk 2.5 www.solihullbereavement.org 2.6 Registered Charity Number 518753 2: Introduction This Business Plan sets out the direction for the Solihull Bereavement Counselling Service (SBCS) over the next 3 years. We hope this plan will be useful for volunteers, staff and funders. 3: What the Organisation Does 3.1 Our Vision: It is the vision for SBCS to offer bereavement counselling for those who need it. Most people experience bereavement at some point. Grieving is a natural process, with its impact on mental and physical health now well understood. Most of us find the support of friends, family and others sufficient to enable us to fulfil society s expectation to get over it in a relatively short time. But there is a small minority of people who, for a combination of social and personal reasons, cannot resolve their grief. It is now understood that this may have an ongoing effect on their mental or physical health. It is this group that SBCS seeks to help. 3.2 Our Mission Statement: Solihull Bereavement Counselling Service (SBCS) was set up in 1987 and exists to promote the wellbeing of bereaved people, to help them understand their grief and cope with their loss. SBCS s mission is to provide a quality bereavement counselling service for people primarily living or working in Solihull, through a dedicated team of volunteers and staff. 3.3 Our Values: SBCS prides itself on its dedicated professional approach to supporting bereaved people by offering respect, compassion, sensitivity and confidentiality in the work we do 2
3.4 Our Services: SBCS offers bereavement counselling for adults and children over the age of 6 years, who live, work or go to school in the borough of Solihull, for whom grieving has not followed a normal pattern. Services are also provided to certain GP practices in Birmingham who are part of the Solihull GP Clinical Commissioning Group. SBCS also offers information, education and training services to educational, social and health organisations whose staff, voluntary and paid may encounter bereavement among their clients and students. SBCS is not an emergency service but can respond where employees, club members, teachers and/or children have been affected by a death in circumstances that impact on a group. 3.5 Our Team: All SBCS Counsellors offer their services on a voluntary basis. SBCS is able to offer bereavement counselling services to high standards due to our approach to training and supervision. All counsellors receive a minimum of: Training to internal and certificate standards. Regular supervision from a counsellor with extensive relevant experience and training. Support as required from the Service Manager and office team. On-going continuous professional development and appraisal, arranged via SBCS Management. The service is managed by a full-time Manager who is a BACP Accredited Counsellor and supported by a small, part-time office team. The Management Team are supported by a Committee that includes representatives of the funding bodies, partner organisations and general representatives with a specific interest or experience of bereavement counselling. 4: Service Review 2010-2013 and Achievements SBCS has developed through the years into a well-respected and professionally run organisation. Last year the service had 287 referrals and delivered 1170 hours of counselling, inclusive of assessments. The service receives more referrals from GP s than any other referring source. GP s referred 170 patients out of the 287 referrals received. 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 Referrals Proceed to counselling GP Referrals 0 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 Since the last business plan we have seen a steady increase in the number of GP practices using our service. Clients who have not proceeded are either referred on to other agencies, or the clients themselves have decided that one to one counselling is not what they wanted at the time of assessment. 3
During the last 3 years we have recruited more volunteers, bringing our total to 34. During that time we have seen some volunteers leave the service and go on to employment or into private practice. During the last 3 years we have managed to continue the work we do under difficult circumstances with funding. 5 SBCS Strategy Summary 2013-2016 This section is based on two basic themes:- Improving the current service Achievable, practical developments to services in response to identified unmet needs Improving the current service SBCS is conscious that the current services it provides are increasingly seen, especially by GPs and local schools, as a useful, cost-effective option to have available to complement the existing range of services available to people with difficulties in coping with bereavement. SBCS is looking forward to working with our Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group colleagues to ensure that this valuable resource is used for the greatest benefit of the community. SBCS will continue to pursue all appropriate means to ensure that the service offered remains of high quality and increasingly fit for purpose, in line with best practice developments in Bereavement Counselling. This may include reading journals, attending selected conferences and training events and participating in properly-constituted and peer-reviewed research, as appropriate. Improvements arising from these activities will be introduced to the core service, following appropriate consultation with funders and referrers. SBCS will continue with its programme to sustain the recruitment and training of new volunteers and to pursue the Continuous Professional Development, Supervision and Appraisal of existing Counsellors in response to clients needs. Service Developments Children and Bereavement. It is our intention to develop the children s service by offering training for those volunteers who wish to work with children. We will seek funding for this training on an annual basis. Having more counsellors who are trained in supporting children, will enable us to keep our waiting times at a minimum. See Appendix 1 for further details. Telephone Support Service. During 2013 SBCS has worked closely with the Solihull Hospital Bereavement Office and Dawn Chaplin, Dean of Nursing and Head of Patient Care for the Trust, in delivering a telephone support service for those people who need to have support soon after a death. This has proven to be beneficial to family members and it is hoped for this project to continue into the 2014 2016 strategic period. See Appendix 2 for details. Administrative Support. As the amount of counselling undertaken grows year on year, the workload involved in recruiting, training, supervising counsellors and producing essential management information grows in proportion. A significant proportion of this additional work is administrative and does not require the professional input of the Manager. Currently administrative support is as follows: 10 paid hours a week. 4
The administrative workload now required to meet the essential needs of the service is significantly greater than it is possible to accommodate with the paid hours available. The interim arrangement whereby the Manager spends an increasing proportion of her time in routine administrative tasks not requiring direct professional input has now reached the point where it is no longer sustainable alongside the proper oversight and development of the SBCS service. For this reason SBCS is seeking funding for an increase in administrative support hours equivalent to 5 hours per week, at an annual cost of 2,256.00 See appendix 3 for details. 6 Public Benefit High Quality bereavement counselling services are now generally accepted as offering considerable benefits to the small minority of the population who find the support of family, friends and the community insufficient to enable them to pass through the grieving process and move on satisfactorily with their lives. Timely recognition by GP s, Social Workers, Teachers, Faith Groups and family members that the grieving process has become stuck and that specialist help may be of some value, plus the availability of an accessible, specialist service network has proved an increasingly welcome and recognised benefit for the people of Solihull over the past quarter-century. The temptation with voluntary sector providers, especially in times of budgetary restraint, is to regard the service offered as somehow optional. However, in the case of SBCS, the organisation s long history demonstrates increasing acceptance of our service as part of the mainstream of available service interventions. As a bonus, a successful outcome to a bereavement counselling referral can prevent the need for a range of alternative, more expensive health and social care interventions. Even in cases where the SBCS assessment process considers that bereavement counselling may not be appropriate, the assessment itself frequently leads to a greater understanding of the issues facing the individual and the route towards their resolution. By focusing on specific needs and adopting a model of service delivery that combines highly qualified, professional management with well-trained volunteer counsellors, SBCS meets an increasing demand from both adults and children for bereavement support in an extremely cost effective manner, at a fraction of the cost of commissioning private counsellors/practitioners. SBCS has operated in the Borough of Solihull for more than 25 years, during which time it has demonstrated an increasing ability to make a positive difference in supporting people experiencing bereavement of all ages. SBCS operates both as a stand-alone service and as an integral part of the wider support network of statutory and voluntary health and social care services within the Borough. 5
Financial Plan APPENDIX 1 Development Project Sheet Title: Services for Children Brief description of proposal: To recognise that counselling services for children now form a valued local resource and to reflect this in future funding. Children s services have to date been funded on an ad hoc, piecemeal basis. Identification of need: Referrals to the service from Parents, Schools including teachers, learning mentors and family support workers, and Social Workers clearly show a demand for the service. During 2012-2013 we received 23 referrals. Proposed timescale to establish: As soon as possible Resources required: Further training for some of our existing counsellors who wish to work with children. Costs of proposal: 1,510 per annum for 2 days of training. This figure would increase slightly each year due to an increase in costs of trainer s fee etc. Public Benefit / Value for money assessment: For a very low cost we can train more counsellors to support children in schools, resulting in a reduced waiting time. APPENDIX 2 Development Project Sheet Title: Telephone Support Service Brief description of proposal: Continuation of the agreement for provision of this successful pilot project working with Dawn Chaplin and the Heart of England Trust. Identification of need: This service is offered to relatives soon after someone dies. Family members have commented to bereavement office staff that to provide this service to family members is important to ensure that they are not just forgotten and that they feel supported in the early days. We received 32 referrals to the service for February 2013 February 2014. Proposed timescale to establish: On-going service Resources required: One bereavement counsellor to carry out duties relating to the role. Monthly supervision/debrief with a supervisor. Cost of proposal: A total cost of 3,566.00. This covers salary costs for the counsellor, supervision and management costs. Costs to be met by Heart of England Trust. Public benefit / Value for money assessment: Early intervention has proved to be successful as support is given soon after death and feelings and thoughts are discussed, as well as practical matters. During 2013-2014 no onward referral to bereavement counselling was made. from the telephone support service. 6
APPENDIX 3 Development Project Sheet: Title: Administration Support Brief description of proposal: An increase in funding to allow for the employment of an additional 5 administrative support hours. Identification of need: As demand for SBCS continues to increase, the essential administrative burden has exceeded the capacity of the existing modest hours, leading to the manager having to spend time an increasing proportion of her time on matters that take her away from her core purpose of managing the service, but which are essential for SBCS to complete. Proposed timescale to establish: As soon as possible. Resources required: We require 5 additional hours per week. Cost of proposal : 5 additional hours per week x 8.68 hourly rate x 52 weeks of the year= 2,256.00 Public benefit/ Value for money assessment: Demand for SBCS services continue to increase, providing an extremely cost-effective service, whilst also potentially reducing the demand for more complex or longer term interventions. 7