Confide
Counselling
St Paul’s Parish Centre Churchside Chichester West Sussex PO19 6FT
Telephone: 01243 531914 Website: www.confide-counselling.co.uk Registered Charity No: 1197103 BACP Membership No: 102539
Annual Report July 2022 / June 2023
| Contents | ||||
| Client Responses | ||||
| Personnel | 2 | O We send feedback questionnaires when our clients have finished their counselling, and ask permission for their responses to be |
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| shared anonymously. Here are some of them: | ||||
| Report from the Chair | 3 |
“I feel very fortunate to have worked with my counsellor – an | ||
| exceptionally good experience of counselling”. | ||||
| Counselling Co-ordinator’s Report | 6 | “A sense that I am able to move on from difficult situations”. | ||
| Treasurers Report | 8 | “Greater appreciation of the good things in my life”. | ||
| “A less judgemental attitude towards myself”. | ||||
| Service Co-ordinators Report | 11 | “To see life in a more positive way and enable me to walk forward | ||
| with more confidence”. | ||||
| Stonepillow | 12 | “See myself as having some worth”. | ||
| Mission Statement | 14 | “I’ve learnt a lot more about myself and what makes me tick”. | ||
| “I can now notice more about how my past affects who I am as a | ||||
| Confide – the service | 15 | person, and when I fall back into old habits, I can notice what I’m | ||
| doing and bring myself out of them”. | ||||
| Organisational Structure | 17 | “My relationships with others are stronger and more open”. | ||
| Client Responses | 18 | “The counsellor helped me to be kinder to myself and understand other people’s possible motivations and to work with these”. |
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| “I felt the service with its open-ended weekly sessions matched | ||||
| my needs perfectly.” |
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Organisational Structure
Personnel
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Confide is a not-for-profit organisation, an independent registered charity under the Charity Commission. Nominated individuals can apply for vacancies on the Board of the Trust and become Trustees following a selection procedure managed by the Board involving personal references and interview. The Board of Trustees works closely with the Management Committee, often in joint meetings of which they are members. Serving on the Management Committee are the Chair of Trustees, the Counselling Co-ordinator, Counselling Supervisor, Trustees, Administrator, Treasurer and Counsellor Representatives.
The Management Committee meets around three times a year. It deals with all matters of organisation, administration, finance, professional standards, publicity and relationships with other organisations including the community in which Confide operates. Confide receives reports and recommendations from its officers, including recommendations related to the appointment of new counsellors.
All the Confide officers, and the Management Committee, are finally accountable to its Trustees.
Trustees and Management Committee
Board of Trustees:
| Board of Trustees: | |
|---|---|
| Chair of Trustees/Chairperson | Revd. Richard More |
| Trustee/Counselling Co-ordinatorJanet Aldridge | |
| (retired June 2022) | |
| Trustee/Supervisor | Mary Ashwin |
| Trustee | Revd. Alison Green |
| Trustee | Pauline Barrow |
| Trustee | Martin Troy |
| Trustee/Supervisor | Margaret Hambrook |
| Additional Management Committee Roles:- | |
| Acting Treasurer | Tineke Zwinkels |
| Service Administrator | Tineke Zwinkels |
| Secretary | Margaret Hambrook |
| Publicity Officer | Hazel Denman |
| Intake Officer | Margaret Hambrook |
| Receptionist | Bobbie Sugarman/Lesley Bennett |
Confide Counsellors
Margaret Hambrook Angie O’Rourke Hazel Denman Jane Everard Lesley Bennett Noemi Warren David Wills Tineke Zwinkels Jane Perrin Lucy Holloway Jonathan Smith Jackie Gooding 2
Report from the Chair
For Confide Counselling, 2022 was a year for consolidation. We have continued in the task set out in our Mission Statement to provide a counselling service ‘a service for the relief of people in West Sussex who experience hardship or distress by reason of mental or physical ill-health or by reason of social or economic circumstances’ As the country has gradually emerged from the Covid pandemic, we have settled into a new permanent pattern of working, through which we are able to offer counselling, face to face, by telephone or by zoom.
We have now completed our first full year as a registered charity and have been able to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that we order and report our finances according to the regulations of the Charity Commission. We have been very grateful to Tineke Zwinkels, our service administrator, for all her work on this. With the systems now in place we urgently need to find a treasurer to look after our day-to-day finances.
As Trustees we have met four times during the year, - each time also with members of the Management Committee.
At our annual meeting in June, Janet Aldridge retired from the post of Counselling Coordinator and we had a very enjoyable evening in October when we were able to thank Janet for all that she has given to the work of Confide over the last 25 years. Initially we had hoped to be able to appoint a new person to take on this role, but so far without success. Meanwhile the work that was done by Janet has been shared out between Mary Ashwin, Margaret Hambrook and Tineke Zwinkels.
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Confide - the Service
Confide continues to offer counselling support for people living in West Sussex who are experiencing hardship or distress through emotional, spiritual, physical or mental ill health, or by reason of social or economic circumstances. Our Trustees emanate from a range of backgrounds including ordained ministry, counselling and social work experience, legal advice, safeguarding and mental health practice, each having due regard to Charity Commission guidance concerning services for public benefit. All our fully qualified counsellors and advanced trainees work as volunteers with the service and receive regular, professional supervision.
The service is open to anyone, regardless of belief, to talk over problems in confidence with someone who will help them to find their own solutions. Those who seek help may be anxious, lonely or depressed. They may be unemployed or overburdened, have problems with children or other members of their family, or facing problems in relationships. They may be facing a difficult decision in life or struggling to come to terms with illness, bereavement, feelings of hopeless or coping with problems of faith. Counsellors aim to provide a sustaining relationship to those with troubles, building on respect and trust. Confidentiality is assured.
Sessions are usually on a weekly basis, lasting about one hour. In the wake of the pandemic, some counsellors offer this service on-line and via telephone/video sessions as appropriate, providing valuable choice and flexibility for clients. Contributions are required, but no one is refused help through lack of means and funding from a bursary is selectively used to top up such payments to realistic levels that cover costs.
We feel that this is working well and we are very grateful to Mary, Margaret and Tineke for taking on such significant additional responsibilities. It is still our intention, at some point, to appoint a new person as Counselling Coordinator, but at present feel it is right to wait.
This year has also seen a further consolidation of our work with Stonepillow. We were very pleased to welcome Hilary Bartle, the CEO of Stonepillow, to the annual meeting and to sense her support and appreciation of our work. We now have a formal Service Level Agreement in place with Stonepillow and we are offering support to both clients and staff.
Now that we are a registered charity, as trustees we are in the process of reviewing and updating our procedures and policies, including on Payment of Expenses, Safeguarding and DBS checks, and Grievance and Complaints procedures. This is proving to be a useful exercise ensuring that Confide is following best practice. The updated documents are made available on the website.
With the return to face-to-face counselling, we are once again very grateful to St Paul’s Church in Chichester and The Friends Meeting House in Bognor for the use of their premises. We are very fortunate to have the use of such excellent rooms and greatly appreciate the support and help of the church staff.
We are most grateful for the work and support of the Management Committee. During the year Bobbie Sugarman had to step aside as our receptionist and we are very grateful to Lesley Bennett who has been covering this important role. Hazel Denman has continued very
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efficiently to oversee our publicity, while taking on additional counselling responsibilities with our Stonepillow work.
I am most grateful to my fellow trustees. We enjoy working together and discovering our responsibilities. We are looking to appoint one more trustee. Somebody with experience in fundraising and grant applications would be very helpful.
However, Confide Counselling exists for our clients - people who recognise that they need help and support, to manage the complex issues that so many face. We are pleased that we have a committed group of experienced counsellors and students, who are willing and able to offer them the support that they are seeking.
It is our hope and aim that Confide will continue to be able to make professional support and counselling available to those who can most benefit from it.
Mission Statement
CONFIDE seeks to provide a counselling service for the relief of people in West Sussex who experience hardship or distress by reason of mental or physical ill-health or by reason of social or economic circumstances.
Confide was formed in 1985, a service sponsored by Methodist Churches in Chichester and Bognor Regis. As such, its philosophy and work emanate from this Christian base. Confide continues to be supported by various other
Christian Churches in Chichester and Bognor Regis and their members. We are currently based at St Paul’s Church in Chichester and are grateful for the hospitality provided for us there.
As a registered Charity in our own right, the service is provided wholly for the public benefit. Alongside our counselling service we work hard to include:-
- Provision of training in counselling for students and colleagues.
Richard More Chair of Trustees of Confide Counselling.
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Co-operation and work alongside statutory authorities, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.
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Collaboration with any charitable bodies operating within West Sussex with similar aims and objectives.
We maintain a dynamic staff member group that includes both Students and Qualified Counsellors. Students can apply to Confide for placement, enabling them to meet the practice hours requirement of their courses and qualified counsellors may apply to join us as and when vacancies occur. Selection is by interview with the Counselling Co-ordinator, Chair of Trustees and Senior Counsellor/Supervisors. The training provided ensures we are continuously growing our expertise and keeping up to date with professional standards.
CONFIDE Counselling seeks to provide professional, affordable counselling to all its clients with additional focus on those among the most vulnerable groups.
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means of gaining greater insight into interaction and the factors that shape people’s lives. Stonepillow management team are currently reviewing this provision and it will be the subject of a joint meeting in June. Stonepillow’s support of CONFIDE with funding of the counsellors’ supervision costs is appreciated as an aid to being able to offer these services. The group of counsellors, strongly supervised by Mary and Margaret, provide not only support to clients but also to each other and this is greatly appreciated.
Tineke Zwinkels Stonepillow Link Counsellor
Counselling Co-ordinator’s Annual Report
Our main objectives between 2021 and 2022 have been to maintain an effective service under the constraints of the pandemic at the same time as updating our procedures and processes. Following the relaxing of Covid arrangements, Counsellors have mainly returned to face-toface counselling at St Paul’s in Chichester and at the Friends’ Meeting House in Bognor Regis. We are most grateful to each venue for their support and for providing such comfortable rooms. Some counselling continues online or by telephone as a preference and Supervision meetings alternate between in-person and zoom sessions.
In 2022 we said goodbye to Helena Polson and Tracy Ranger, and towards the end of 2022 we welcomed Jackie Gooding, David Wills, and Noemi Warren to the counsellor group. More student counsellors are due to join us in the next few months, strengthening the team and extending the service to more clients. Confide and its clients benefit from this core of well-trained, experienced, committed, and willing counsellors.
We continue to have a steady flow of referrals. The new website has helped with communication and interaction, and our Receptionist, Lesley Bennett, has been kept busy with enquiries. We are grateful to Lesley for kindly taking over this role.
Margaret Hambrook has continued to lead on intake assessments with Lesley and myself taking a share of this increasing workload. This has eased some of the pressure on Margaret who, following the retirement of Janet Aldridge in June 2022, also took on the allocation of work and
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some supervision. In 2022 we had 30 approaches with 11 clients taking up counselling sessions.
We have seen a decrease of 82 (9%) sessions, i.e. 790 session in 2022 from 872 sessions in 2021, mostly due to issues arising from the Covid pandemic. A short waiting list remains due to the reduced availability of counsellors and restrictions to the time we can occupy the rooms (e.g., no evening sessions).
Mary Ashwin’s role in CONFIDE has increased significantly as a result of the developing work with Stonepillow. Added to the supervision of Counsellors working with Stonepillow, CONFIDE also provides support for Mental Health work and Staff Group Supervision, and both these are also supervised by Mary. Student Counsellors, requiring 1 to 1 supervision each month, increases Mary’s workload further and we are grateful for her dedicated and continued commitment to this work.
The time commitment for Counsellors working with both Confide and Stonepillow clients is equal to 10 hours of supervision per month and it has proved challenging to meet this. Consequently, it has been agreed that counsellors should work either with Confide, or with Stonepillow clients.
In November we had a very successful and interesting CPD training morning, Integrating Psychodynamic Principles with Trauma Theory and Counselling, presented by Sally Knight. This was followed in April by a training session on Equal Opportunity Procedure, incorporating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Race, Religion and Belief, and Disability, attended by both Counsellors and Trustees.
Stonepillow
The work with the Stonepillow service users continues to be challenging and places significant demands on counsellors working in this area. Jonathan works at The Glassworks in Chichester with Toby as the Stonepillow contact. Toby provides important background information and acts as a contact between client and counsellor. Although there has been a steady flow of client referrals from Chichester, some clients find it difficult to fully engage in the counselling. We are working at improving the information flow and thereby the understanding of what counselling entails as well as the commitment required from the service users. Hadley remains the link in Bognor Hostel, where Jane, Lucy, Jackie and Tineke are working. Bognor Regis has a small waiting list.
We offered 356 sessions in 2022 to the Stonepillow service users. This is a decrease of 38 session (9.6%) in comparison to 2021. Unfortunately, there has been a reduction of attendance from 327 (88% of total offered sessions) to 234 (66% of total offered sessions). 70 sessions were cancelled, and 52 sessions were not attended.
A small team of counsellors provide support to some Stonepillow staff members in the form of short-term counselling with 2 to 6 sessions. The feedback from receiving this support has been very positive and is gratefully appreciated by staff and management. Alison Green continues to work with the Stonepillow Mental Health worker covering various elements of the clinical work. Hazel Denman facilitates the group sessions set up for staff members. The four groups are now well established although full attendance has been difficult to sustain. The groups have looked at Transactional Analysis, Life Script work, Games people play, I’m OK-You’re OK life positions and the Drama triangle as a
Mary Ashwin/Tineke Zwinkels Counselling-Service Co-ordinator .
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Service Co-ordinators Report
The supervisors and service administrator have held regular meetings throughout the year to discuss various issues, review policies and procedures, arrange interviews and plan the training events. These meetings have been important to work through the organisational changes and challenges following Janet Aldridge’s retirement in June 2022.
In 2022, we launched our new website, which provides a clearer overview, an easy referral form for clients, a contact form for student counsellors looking for a placement, and all relevant policies and procedures relating to work with clients. A full review of Policies and Procedures has been completed, with further work to be done on the Equal Opportunity Procedure after our training day. Our Trustee - Martin Troy, who joined us in 2022, kindly reviewed the Grievance and Complaints procedure.
In addition:
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Confide is now registered with ‘ Thirtyone:eight’ for the DBS checks.
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Confide is registered with HMRC to claim Gift Aid and after a full year as a recognised charity, we will be able to raise further funds through this scheme.
Further fundraising opportunities will be explored in the months ahead.
I would like to thank the Trustees and Management Group – especially Richard More, Mary Ashwin, and Margaret Hambrook, Hazel Denman, Bobbie Sugarman, Lesley Bennett and our Counsellors for their support and encouragement. It is the commitment and care of each one involved with Confide which makes this role enjoyable and rewarding.
Treasurers Report
As these accounts will be the first accounts we present to the Charity Commissioners, they include transactions relating to the period of 14[th] December 2021 onwards. In accordance with requirements set out by the Charity Commissioners, the accounts will show the related party transactions for expenses and services paid to some Trustees and Committee members.
The 2022 accounts were fully approved following an independent examination by Roderick Smith. We would like to thank him for his time and commitment to doing this work.
In 2022 there was a reduced income from our client work. However, we are grateful for the support from St Paul’s Church (£375.00) and St John’s Trust (1800.00), with some other small donations plus contributions from
Stonepillow, providing us with a total income of £17705. An increase of nearly £5000 in comparison to 2021.
Our expenditure increased by nearly £5000, from £12232.37 in 2021 to £18133.48 in 2022. The main increases are in Training costs (Assessment and Supervision training); Supervision (now with new rates and more supervision sessions); Room hire (resulting from a return to face-to-face counselling); and the development/updating of our Website.
Insurance to cover Counsellors for professional risks has been put in place for our 12 counsellors with an indemnity limit for any one event of £2m. This cover increased to 15 counsellors in February 2023.
The bursary fund - through the donations from St John's Trust - covered £385.00 regarding unpaid sessions by clients in 2021/2022. Two clients were supported through the bursary fund - £132.00. The bursary fund funded the redesign of the website (£1100). The first of six-instalment payment (£200 each) for the supervision training is funded through the bursary fund.
Tineke Zwinkels
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Confide Income
----- Start of picture text -----
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2020 2021 2022
Client Contributions Supervision Income Donations
Confide Expenditure
14000
12000
10000
Supervision & Training
8000 Client Intake
Room Hire
6000
Other Admin Exp
4000
Prof. Fees
2000
0
2020 2021 2022
----- End of picture text -----
There is a net inflow of funds (£740) from the Stonepillow project. The Stonepillow cost include the Admin costs (£452.50).
This gives us a small deficit in 2022 of £ 705.98
The finances of Confide are greatly helped by the large amount of time contributed voluntarily by the receptionist, counsellors, and committee members. I would like to thank each of them for their input, for providing accurate and up to date information to make my task as Treasurer easier.
Tineke Zwinkels
Treasurer
Income v Cost / Session
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Ave Income / session Ave Cost / session
2020 2021 2022
26.63
17.41
15.97
8.82 10.82 11.10
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(HARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGIANO APIO WAIE5 Confldo Counselllnu IWtr¥t Su88oxI 1197103 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For th& ptrriod Irom 1411212021 3111Z12022 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds Restri¢tÈd funds Endowment funds Tolal funds Lasi y•èr toth• n¢ar¢i to thD nq4roil £ tothe TrEareJt£ ¢0 lhp no•ro•t£ loth• E Al Receipts Danabun& uffld Gran ¢untnbulVJnS Sup¢rvL5ion B.S70 8.403 7aJ 8.670 8003 7)3 643 Sub total{GS5 incorne lorAR) A2 As$et and investment sales, Isee tsblèl- 17.705 17.705 12.264 Sub total 17.705 17,706 12.264 A3Pa ments Prinbng & P05ge MinstraD. AGNI 8 Mss¢neouS TIpOn0 35 162 IQS 162 1,18$ 263 1.699 177 10$ 76D 6.149 J91 26J 1.020 SupptV151ts n$urafflc• use ol piemise$ Wobsiie Eleyign Putyiclty AffliabDll 423 2,552 1.264 225 280 2.352 1.264 225 280 216 14Q Sub total 1B,867 1B,a67 12,406 A4 A88etand finvÈsts¢nt purchases. 15ee tsblÈl Sub total 16,867 IB.167 12,406 Net of r•cèiptsi(paymentsJ A5 Trnn$fers b¢tro¢n funds A6 Cash lund8 last year end Cash funds this yearend 1.162 1.1fj2 14J 8,336 7.174 8.336 7.174 8.479 8,J36 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted lund8 Re51rictod lunds tonoarNt£ Endowment fund5 CalpgOTIèS 81 Cash fun(Is 8ur5ery S Be4uES1 ReSUYE 4.7B7 4,704 CurtentAccoun¢ 2.3B7 Total cash lunds Y.174 8.336 rKccuNIII Unrestricted lund8 Re¥tr6¢ted funds Endowm8nt funds CCXX Rl accounis ISSI 0410512023
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