The Provision of a Children and Young Peoples (CYP) Digital Counselling Service on behalf of Manchester Health and Care Commissioning

The Service is an online counselling service, open 7 days a week, providing message counselling and self-help information as well as live and off-line forums which are all available 24 hours a day. In addition one to one counselling will be made available from 12 noon to 10pm Monday to Friday and 6pm to 10pm at weekends. Counsellors provide one to one counselling in secure chat rooms, either on a virtual drop in basis or in a scheduled format. Pathways are in place for onward referral so CYP know how to access other services. The aims and objectives of service are to: • Provide an early intervention resource which targets improvements in young people's emotional and mental wellbeing • Ensure a timely and appropriate response to service requests from a range of individuals and agencies • Ensure that information about the service is widely available • Provide a structured 1:1 counselling service to young people in need which draw on relevant NICE guidelines • Provide secure online counselling and support to young people • Liaise with key partners such as CAMHS services, community teams, educational establishments, early help hubs and third sector providers where the young person consents and where this facilitates greater impact of the intervention on outcomes • Ensure service user feedback is integral to the service • Comply with standards and processes for safeguarding