Annual Report 2023-2024 |**TABLE OF CONTENTS**| |---| || |**ABOUT ARC**
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**3**| |**OUR COUNSELLING ROOMS__________________________________________________________________3**| |**CHAIR’S REPORT**
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**4**| |**MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE**
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**5**| |**THE TEAM:________________________________________________________________________________6**| |**COORDINATORS REPORT**
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**7**| |**CLINICAL COORDINATORS REPORT**
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**8**| |**OUTREACH AND SCHOOLS**
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**9**| |**INCREASE IN DEMAND_______________________________________________________________________9**| |**REFERRALS_________________________________________________________________________________9**| |**PROFESSIONAL & ETHICAL TEAM_____________________________________________________________9**| |**YOUTH ACCESS**
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**10**| |**THE YOUTH PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT___________________________12**| |**WORKSHOPS**
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**13**| |**FUTURE___________________________________________________________________________________14**| |**FEEDBACK FROM THE WORKSHOPS__________________________________________________________14**| |**MAKING A DIFFERENCE**
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**15**| |**CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S FEEDBACK___________________________________________________16**| |**ADULT FEEDBACK__________________________________________________________________________17**| |**THANK YOU!**
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**18**| |**FINANCIAL REPORT**
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**20**| **PAGE** **2** ARS **ABOUT ARC** ARC is a charity with over 20 years’ experience supporting Wokingham and the surrounding areas. We offer one-to-one counselling to Adults and Young People across Wokingham and the surrounding areas. We provide confidential counselling, at our main site in Wokingham, Oakwood in Woodley, and GP surgeries and Schools across the area. ARC provides a vital role within the community, with referrals coming from other agencies as well as self-referrals. Our counselling services are free to young people under the age of 21 years and low cost for adults. We believe that counselling should be accessible for all and that cost should never be a barrier to better mental health. In addition to counselling, we also offer important support for 16 – 25 year old’s, through our Youth Access program (YIACS), which provides information to young people on where and how to access support, from housing, to work and mental health. ## OUR COUNSELLING ROOMS **PAGE** **3** ## **CHAIR’S REPORT** ~~——~~ It has been a fulfilling and challenging year. ARC has recruited many new Counsellors to meet the ever growing needs of the population of Wokingham and surrounding areas. Anxiety is again very high on the list of priorities throughout families. Problems regarding personal income and associated concerns over family finances, the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, along with the war between Israel and Palestine are high on the list. Young people’s mental health since Covid has declined and shows little sign of levelling off, in fact seems to be getting worse. There are high rates of people being diagnosed needing ECHPs and higher levels of people being diagnosed with ADHD. This has necessitated greater needs for support. We have increased the size of our teams to cope with the ever growing demands that these problems throw up. ARC provides Counsellors with regular training and organises meeting for Counsellors to share skills, along with information on trends that are coming through the system. ARC continues to run courses for parents of anxious children that are vulnerable and susceptible to self-harm and provides on-going training to teachers and any one who is responsible for children regarding susceptibility to suicide. Supervision is an important aspect to the role of counselling and on-going training both inhouse and at residential settings is very important to us. We require the very highest level of counselling in order to maintain the utmost safety of our clients. The Youth Access Project working in Schools and Colleges continues to gain strength and it is hoped that we will get a further 3 years funding for this very worthwhile enterprise. Caitlin Parris is our new intern from the University of Reading, working on our social media pages, we wish her well with this. ARC can only carry out all the work required with the generous help and support of the people and the organisations that fund us. It was very good to meet with Lee Teideman who is the Commissioning Officer for Wokingham Borough Council; to strengthen our relationship with one of our funders, this was extremely important to us. I must also extend my gratitude to all Counsellors and members of the Management Committee for their support and encouragement throughout the year. I will end on a very sad note and report that Chris Allen died peacefully at home and we hold his wife Lynne in our hearts. Chris was a founding member of ARC and the way he supported and nurtured old and new Counsellors will be very much missed. ## Nancy Quinnell Chair **PAGE** **4** **MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE** ## **CHAIR** ## **Nancy Quinnell** Retired Woodley Town Councillor and teacher ## **Rosemary Cook** Earley Town Councillor Representative ## **Rachelle Shepherd Dubey** Wokingham Borough Councillor and an experienced **SECRETARY** **Ann Stainton** ARC Co-founder and independent delegate **Shelagh Flowers** Woodley Town Council Representative ## **Kay Gilder** Woodley Town Council Representative **TREASURER** **Dick Crowther** Retired board member of Diageo and Mars **Rev. Jackie Case** Churches Together Representative **Dr Katharine Hadfield** General Practitioner Paediatric Specialist **PAGE** **5** ## **THE TEAM:** **Paul Cassidy (Coordinator), Vanessa Bunting-Palmer (Clinical Coordinator), Caroline Woodford (Admin Manager), Jane Buckland (Finance Manager), Shaffrina Rogers (YIACS Manager), Jemma Maicher (YIACS), Lilly Capuozzo (Outreach Manager), Charlie Wall (Admin), Mary Rees (Admin), Caitlin Parris (Social Media Intern)** ## **THE COUNSELLORS:** **Adam, Amal, Anna B, Anna O, Azib, Becky, Caroline, Cath, Catherine, Ceri, Charlotte, Claudia, Danny, Debbie, Elena, Emma, Grace, Honesty, Jackie, Jane A, Jane B, Jane S, Julie D, Julie F, Julie H, Kate, Katie, Kayleigh, Kemba, Ken, Krissy, Kuldeep, Laura, Lilly, Linda, Lindsey, Lizzie, Louise, Maddy, Maria, Martin, Martina, Mary, Maya, Michelle, Natasha, Neil, Ote, Phaedra, Richard, Sarah Ha, Sarah Ho, Seema, Shaffrina, Sian, Sophie, Spencer, Sue, Tegan, Vicky, Victoria** ## **COUNSELLING SUPERVISORS:** **Vanessa Bunting-Palmer, Jo Cooke, Heidi Joliffe, Maria Facey, Janet Gunn, Lilly Capuozzo, Sue Byrne, Chris Allen, Charlotte Wall.** **PAGE** **6** ## **COORDINATORS REPORT** It feels like it’s been a really good year for ARC, where thanks to the backing of the management committee we have continued to expand our service to match the post Covid demand for our services. We were risking using some of our reserve funding to do this, as well as try to keep up with the huge jump in inflationary costs. We had a late Christmas present from the Postcode lottery covering those costs to the tune of £30k, a huge relief. A great concern at the beginning of the year was both the increased demand, and the severity of the presenting issues young people were bringing to counselling. This has led us to increase the number of sessions we offer to young people, moving from a six-session model that had been sufficient for the past decade to a 9-session model. Our level 5 qualified youth counselling team was grown to allow us to offer an extra 40 sessions a week at ARC, this has had a massive effect on our waiting list which was getting towards 100 young people waiting to see a counsellor, the list now stands at under 40. Demand for our low-cost adult counselling provision has also grown post-Covid, with anxiety and the effects that has on family relationships, worries around financial insecurity has led us to increase the size of the student counselling team who come to us for their placement. Like most charity’s we have had our costs increase this year, much more than previous years, and have been able to absorb some of them, but to continue to match the need we will have to increase prices to schools. We feel it is still extremely good value and does not reflect the actual cost being subsidised by our many funders. Our youth access project, funded by the national lottery goes from strength to strength , thanks to Shaffrina and Jemma, we are hopeful that funding can be extended for a further 3 years, allowing us to work with the hard to reach 16-25 age group. Our in-house training team have also had a busy year, with the youth counselling qualification, online counselling training for new counsellors and ensuring our safeguarding is as robust as possible. We aim to offer the highest quality and safety for all our clients. Thanks must be given to our two key partners, Wokingham borough council and the NHS, for their continued support, as well as the growing list of local councils, funders and companies that contribute so much to improve our resident’s mental health. A special thanks to our clinical coordinator Vanessa for ensuring our BACP accredited service status continues, amongst all her other duties. ~7 am7 The ARC team now stands over 80 people and includes counsellors, supervisors, office, management committee all of who help us provide an excellent service to the residents of Wokingham. **PAGE** **7** ## Paul Cassidy ## **CLINICAL COORDINATORS REPORT** We have come to the end of another very busy year, one of change and consolidation, all with the aim of providing a professional and effective counselling service to our young people and adults. ## COUNSELLORS We have recruited 18 student counsellors in the last 6 months, which now brings our counselling team to over 60. Student counsellors work with adult clients, along with several counsellors who have continued to work with adults after qualification. This brings a depth of experience that is greatly valued. Alongside this, around half of our counsellors work with children and young people, both at ARC and in Woodley and the many schools that use our services. Online working is something that has developed during and post-Covid, so we now have a recommended online course that counsellors undertake, along with an ARC induction session. This has enabled us to ensure consistency and high standards of practice when working online. Our Bournemouth training last October was another success, on the topic of _Trauma and the Fear Continuum_ . Alongside the benefits of the training, this weekend always provides an opportunity to gather as a whole and celebrate our work. We have also just had our 3[rd] ARC Conference Day, held in Wokingham. This week’s topic was looking at incorporating CBT skills into our practice. It was a thought-provoking and challenging day, but also an enjoyable one. It is always a delight to see the teamwork and camaraderie between counsellors on the same shift. ## SUPERVISORS We have gained a supervisor this year, one who has come ‘through the ranks’ with ARC and has settled quickly into the work. Sadly, we also lost Chris Allen from the team. His wealth of experience will be greatly missed. ## TRAINING **PAGE** **8** We have presented our in-house Children and Young People training for the second time, with 8 counsellors qualifying to work with the secondary age group. This training has now become a regular part of our calendar and we will be running it again this summer. ## Vanessa Bunting-Palmer Clinical Coordinator **PAGE** **9** ## **OUTREACH AND SCHOOLS** ## INCREASE IN DEMAND 2024 has started with an increase of Counsellors demand in the schools around Wokingham area; two new schools have shown an interested in our School Counselling Service, Holme Grange and St HOLME Joseph and a Pupil € a3 GRANGE Referral Unit SCHOOL (Foundry College). All three schools have requested a Counsellor who (( Foundeywg urture College- inspire - achieve could fulfil the increasing demand of students asking for mental health help. We also had existing schools requesting for more hours of Counselling Service to prepare for the exam stress that seems to be escalating this time of the year. ## REFERRALS The professional relationship that has been established between ARC, Counsellors and Schools is evident by the clients’ demand for counselling coming to the agency where parents and carers of young people seem to have been referred by Schools or GPs. This has also been aided by the various workshops delivered by ARC in Primary and Secondary schools across the borough. ## PROFESSIONAL & ETHICAL TEAM All ARC School Counsellors are qualified and deliver a professional and ethical service which is second to none; this is also supported by the continuous training opportunities that ARC offers to all its Volunteers and Paid Counsellors and by monthly Supervision. Currently, we have 17 schools that are using ARC’s services, some of them with one or two Counsellors on site. In total we are delivering over 80 hours of Counselling Service per week to young people between the age of 11 and 18 and I am sure this is a good indication of the continuous support that ARC receives from the Wokingham community. ## **Lilly Capuozzo** Outreach & Schools Coordinator **PAGE** **10** PAGE ## **YOUTH ACCESS** This year has been hugely successful with numbers of young people we have supported in This year was spent building trusting relationships, promoting engagement and enabling young people to have access to the services. The young people of Wokingham have had access to drugs and alcohol awareness sessions, sexual health sessions and mental health sessions through schools and colleges. ## _**Piggott’s 6[th] form feedback:**_ the thousands. _**Figures from year 1s funding report.**_ _**Indirect support** – advertising, assemblies, and access to materials relevant to the young people. Piggots 6[th] form 500 students we attend fortnightly. Approx 7,500 over the year._ _Maiden Erlegh 6[th] form 450 students we attend fortnightly. Approx 6,750 over the year._ _Bracknell and Wokingham college we reach 200 students fortnightly. Approx 3,000 over the year._ _Waingels college and Bulmershe 150 each and we attend fortnightly. Approx rough total 4,500 over the year._ _**Direct support** – signposting / referrals / direct support. Approx 2,000_ _**1:1s:** 7 young people aged between 17-25 - accessing up to 10 sessions. Covering mental health, Employment, LGBTQ+, life skills, bereavement, exam stress, assault, addiction. Total 48 1:1 session._ _Shaffrina and her team have been incredible this year. From organising workshops with over 200 students, delivering assemblies and drop-in clinics my students (Year 12 and 13) have benefitted from impartial advice and signposting. Firstly, I feel very lucky to have such a professional and organised colleague come to our school regularly free of charge. The students have grown to know Shaffrina as a friendly face in the common room and engaged with her stand during the lunch time drop ins. She has also provided some smaller group or individual sessions with students. They have given students the opportunity to be wellinformed about issues they face and signposted them to appropriate resources or services when appropriate. Shaffrina and Jemma are an asset to ARC and I have been so impressed with their generosity of their time and expertise. Thank you and I hope to continue working with you for a long time!_ Our service has increased with external organisations referring young people to us and reaching out for their own advice and guidance. Our delivery has now been extended to 1 more college and 1 more 6[th] form. We have increased our 1;1 support, doubling our reach. We are currently in talks with **Wokingham Pride** to enable a youth team to be part of this next year with our focus this year being young people being active participants within their community. We have increased the way we provide our services to support more young people individually. We have had an increase in referrals, including external referrals (Mind) and self-referrals. More young people have had access to individual sessions and clear pathways into other services. _1;1 young person aged 22- ‘I have had talking therapy a few times. We set goals and things I want to achieve_ **PAGE** **12** _but once outside the therapy room, I don’t know what to do. This is helping me to make those goals achievable, thank you’._ We have supported young people to access education, employment, volunteer work and mental health services. Several young people have been referred through to ARCs counselling service, having not had the confidence to access therapy previously. This individual support has enabled our clients to access the support they need and making pathways clear and accessible. Last year we struggled to access certain demographic groups for example SEND and ages 19-25. Through our partnership with a new college and are now working with SEN young people aged 16-25 years making access to information, advice, and guidance accessible to all. Jemma joined the team last year. She has now completed her level 2 youth work qualification and in the process of completing her level 3 JNC youth work qualification. She has been a real asset to the work we have achieved. Part of our funding within the community includes community engagement. We have an exciting new project developing independent ambassadors called _‘youth participation and community engagement project’_ This is growing as the young people increase in confidence and critique and review services locally. This has been a wonderful experience to see developing. ## _**What reasearch tells us:**_ - _Empowered youth CAN and DO make a difference!_ - _Youth Participation and Community Change seeks to shift the viewpoint from youth as being problems to empowering them to enact positive social change._ - _Young people become empowered by their participation in the decisions that affect their lives-which in turn can lead to real positive change in the community._ _**Quote** - Mainstream view of much of today's youth is that of being victims of society rather than a being a possible positive influence on society as a whole._ - _Our approach will include communitybased research, assessments, and evaluation._ Following the assemblies, we are pleased to announce that we have established an ambassador’s group who are keen to campaign and make Wokingham services more accessible to all young people. **PAGE** **13** ## THE YOUTH PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT It’s been a pleasure to watch the young people grow in independence and create their own project with us as facilitators. Will be a sub project within our project running parallel to the services offered in year One. We are excited to be able to walk alongside the young people and to support them to feel embedded in their services and their community. ## **Project aims:** This project aims for young people to: - Research local services for young people within their community. - Investigates the accessibility for each service. - Evaluate the aims of each service. - Formulate findings. - Present constructive feedback to organizations. - To promote more young people’s engagement with services within their own community - Young people have greater involvement in the community. - Have better access to services. ## Shaffrina Rogers Youth Access ## **Outcomes:** - Young people are actively involved in shaping their community. - Young people’s voices are heard, valued, and acted upon. - To have promoted positive, active change. **PAGE** **14** - Organizations make reasonable changes in their service following research and feedback. - Young people feel empowered to make changes within their community. ## **WORKSHOPS** At ARC we recognised the need for the parents/carers of children and young people to have additional resources to support them. It can be confusing and lonely as a parent/carer supporting a child struggling with mental health difficulties. We have developed four new workshops that can be offered through schools throughout the area, to reach parents who may need some additional support and information. We received interest from 2 Secondary schools, 1 college and 7 Primary schools and booked 9 Anxiety workshops and 1 Suicide awareness workshop (an INSET training session for 47 staff). Two of the Primary schools have booked two workshops which they plan to fill by offering spaces to other local schools, if necessary. It is positive to hear that the workshops are being discussed more widely in the school community. Unfortunately, there were not enough parents/carers to fill a booking for the Self-harm awareness workshop Generally attendance is between 20-40 people per workshop. We create an environment of empathy, honesty and no judgement. Which provide the parents/carers a safe space to share their experiences, concerns and questions. This was expressed in their feedback. Two of which are help supporting children to manage their anxiety, one aimed at Primary school age and the other Secondary school age. The other two workshops are aimed at Selfharm awareness and Suicide awareness. We have offered the workshops to all local schools, including 5 at subsidised rates (the “5 Golden tickets”) via Julian Bushell, who We found parents/carers willing to share their lived experiences with the group and found that other people had similar experiences, which created dialogue, discussion and connection. They used the space for reflection, sharing their thoughts, feelings and experiences within their ‘activity groups’, the whole group and individually with ARC staff. Parents/carers felt they had better awareness and understanding of the topic at the end of the workshop. We provided some psychoeducation to help in understanding the topic, which was well recieved. Attendees were provided with a PDF of the **PAGE** **15** kindly initially contacted schools sharing our flyer. This helped to get schools to respond and commit. workshop (via school) and handout sheets with the ideas we shared, to help them to support their children and young people. **PAGE** **16** The majority of parents/carers were not aware of the services that ARC offer. We received many children, young people and adult referrals to ARC as a result of the workshops. This connection with the school increases the school community’s awareness of our services. Also, according to the Primary school teachers, the need for counselling for under 11 years old has increased (since the pandemic) and they are finding that their ‘nurture support’ is not enough for some students. A parent’s feedback wondered if ARC could consider providing workshops for children in schools and parents/carers would like there to be more access to counsellors for Primary school children. ## FEEDBACK FROM THE WORKSHOPS “Thank you, a helpful session, felt very welcome to share.” “All speakers were approachable and friendly.” ”The workshop was extremely helpful. Very well presented” “Consider sessions in school to help children understand anxiety and how to help themselves and understand their own feelings.” “Thanks for a great session. A good mix of useful information and practical ideas for supporting my son.” “Really informative, with great practical ways to help my children.” “Really helpful – Good advice on how to communicate with young person – also nice to hear that I am not alone and that some of this behaviour is totally normal!” We now have a group of counsellors who are interested in delivering the workshops. Phaedra, Amal and Claudia have enthusiastically committed themselves to the team and are now delivering workshops. We enjoy working together and I would like to thank them, as well as Lilly, for their ongoing support. “Very informative workshop, I will go away with new tools to support my son” ## FUTURE Our aim is to continue to offer workshops to schools and grow our offering. We are reflecting on how best to reach the families affected by self-harm and suicide to attend workshops. Perhaps through inter-school collaboration, via the website or parents who refer clients. One local primary school recently considered reaching out to other primary schools and host a shared workshop on self-harm. We are looking into the possibility of developing workshops to meet the needs of **PAGE** **17** the community which may include Primary schools. **PAGE** **18** ## **MAKING A DIFFERENCE** This year again, we have offered over 11000 counselling sessions. Demand for our services continues to grow. 2000 counselling sessions to Children and Young People at ARC in Wokingham. Over 3700 Adult counselling session took place at ARC Wokingham ## Our counsellors based at local schools have provided over 3900 sessions over the past year and this area continues to grow in both demand and complexity. **----- Start of picture text -----**
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**PAGE** **19** ## CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S FEEDBACK At the start of counselling the average well-being score at the start of counselling was a score of 3 out of 10. By the end of the 6 sessions (increased to 9 sessions later on in the year) well-being scores average 7 out of 10. **PAGE** **20** ## ADULT FEEDBACK On average our adult clients rate their level of well-being at the start of counselling of just under 3 out of a score of 10. By the end of the 12 sessions the score increased to a well-being score of 7. In all the feedback the clients found our counsellors: - Easy to talk to. - Felt their problems and feelings were understood. - Felt they were listened to. Below is just a snapshot of some of the feedback we have received. **PAGE** **21** **THANK YOU!** Aig — Vi7 ARC would like to thank and express our huge gratitude to all the local companies, councils (antl od RUSCOMDE I yg and organisations that provide the well needed financial support for our services & / ah Parish Council Bod, throughout 2023/2024 and onwards. ope 5, AX University of ex, WOKINGHAM “he Reading **----- Start of picture text -----**
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**22** ARC wouldn’t be able to operate effectively without the dedication and support from our volunteers and counsellors and we would like to extend thanks to all. **PAGE** **23** PAGE FINANCIAL REPORT INCOME AND EXPENixfuRE ACCOUNT- 2023124 INCOME 31.n5 31JXXI.C¥J 29.412.(Xl Berkshire IIHS MItK￿l Lottery C¢xnnxwth7 Fund Woc¥JltyTty•4n C¢vn Woktyh•fft Cw*ll Cty•¢ll Wokn¥h•m WrtPKxrt SthLdi CtXbh*elkni Wokwqharn Unitrd 3.50).CIJ 78.651.rAI 18AY•.11 4S367.18 2X#)9.39 lJ37.27 Chartsble DDn¥K 61ft A•d Clms Interest ftern1￿d Totsl EXPEMomiAE Schooli CA￿$•1￿￿. Contrxts 9J33. 3.411.92 30,612.(Kl 11.629.74 9.468.53 5.618.31 3.15141 3381.84 3.122.20 16(W). 474.21 73.4B7.35 43.332.IXI 9,764.55 Prepved ￿:. L991.L GP Cwnselln¢ YP C¢uhselin4 Aent & Rxes Prlnkny & Statlwv Furniturn & Eqyynent M*nt¢n4r