Stop.Breathe.Think provides flexible and professional counselling support for children and young people, designed to work seamlessly alongside your school’s existing wellbeing provision. This page explains how our service operates, what schools can expect from us and how we ensure every young person receives high-quality support.
Stop.Breathe.Think is a registered national youth charity in England and Wales (Charity No. 1206068). As an organisation we operate to the highest professional standards, following the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions and adhering to national safeguarding and data protection legislation. This includes UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015, updated 2023), the Care Act 2014, the Prevent Duty and DBS safer-recruitment requirements. To ensure clinical quality, we also use Iaptus, an NHS-standard patient management system, for all counselling records. Our organisational policies, safeguarding structures and staff training mean every young person receives a safe and professional service.
Our counsellors are qualified, experienced professionals specialising in supporting children and young people aged 8–21. Their qualifications range from Level 4 to Level 7, including degree and Masters level counselling training. All our counsellors undergo enhanced DBS checks before joining the service and complete mandatory Stop.Breathe.Think safeguarding training upon induction, followed by annual updates. They must be registered with a counselling professional membership body and adhere to their registration requirements, they must also hold their own valid indemnity insurance. Counsellors working with Stop.Breathe.Think must attend monthly meetings and receive regular supervision, ensuring their practice stays safe, ethical and informed by current guidance. Our team is trained to recognise the needs of vulnerable young people, respond to safeguarding concerns and work within the ethical and legal duties required of practitioners supporting children and families.
The first person your young person will speak to after booking their assessment will be a member of the triage and assessment team. This assessment will provide the information we need to inform our matching process with our counsellors. This meeting should take around 60 minutes to complete and will include a psychosocial assessment which the young person will be guided through. They will be asked to set goals for their counselling journey with Stop.Breathe.Think, to set clear guidance for their time with the service. These assessment results are reviewed by our Counsellor Manager, who will then assign a Stop.Breathe.Think counsellor to young person based on their needs. Once the young person has started their counselling sessions, they will speak to the same counsellor every week.
Stop.Breathe.Think is the Data Controller for all information we collect and process. We take data protection extremely seriously and follow the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. All client and counselling data is stored securely in Iaptus, a GDPR-compliant clinical system managed by Mayden House Ltd, who act as a Data Processor. Access to personal data is strictly limited to authorised staff such as counsellors and safeguarding leads and all information is encrypted, password-protected and held within secure Microsoft 365 systems. Data is never sold or shared for marketing purposes and information is only disclosed when legally required, when a safeguarding concern needs to be acted upon, or when a young person requests their records (subject to safety checks). We retain counselling records for seven years, after which they are securely deleted.
Safeguarding is central to everything we do. We have a comprehensive Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults Policy which is reviewed annually and overseen by our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Deputy DSLs and Safeguarding Trustee. Our policy ensures that every young person’s safety and wellbeing is our highest priority and all staff share responsibility for identifying and responding to risk. Counsellors receive safeguarding training during induction and ongoing updates throughout the year.
We follow clear reporting procedures, acting within 24 hours on any concerns and contacting police immediately if a child is in danger. When working with schools, our staff follow the school’s safeguarding procedures as well as our own, ensuring disclosures are passed to the school’s DSL the same day.
Our safeguarding approach covers a wide range of risks, including abuse, neglect, online exploitation, bullying, FGM, county lines, criminal and sexual exploitation, radicalisation and modern slavery. Every incident is carefully reviewed, logged securely in Iaptus and managed under the guidance of our safeguarding leads. Through robust policies, safe recruitment, training and partnership working, we ensure young people accessing our service are protected and supported at every stage.
For the first assessment meeting, you can, this will take place through an an Iaptus online video link. When we start the counselling sessions, we ask that you do not attend. We offer a confidential space to our young people, which makes them feel safe to open up and talk about how they are feeling.
Please be assured our counsellors are trained in our safeguarding policy and procedures. For further information on our safeguarding policy please contact us admin@stopbreathethink.org.uk
We understand that things may come up that prevent young people from attending their session with Stop.Breathe.Think. If a young person needs to cancel their counselling session, they must do this within 24 hours of the appointment time. Failure to do so will result in a DNA or late cancellation and the session will be lost from their remaining sessions. After two incidences of DNA or late cancellation, we will discharge the young person from the service. Each DNA or late cancellation costs SBT £30.
We aim to support as many young people as we can. However in certain circumstances it may be deemed that our service is not appropriate for your young persons needs.
Stop.Breathe.Think. can not provide crisis intervention- If your young person is in immediate danger or you feel like they might harm themselves or somebody else- call 999, or go straight to hospital. Find your nearest A&E – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
If you are a professional or parent supporting a young person with a referral, please support your young person in accessing alternative support.
