Our Stories
At bccs we believe that every child should be loved and cared for. However, some children experience great hardship and suffering – from bereavement and bullying, to anxiety and abuse. bccs provides counselling for children and young adults whose wellbeing, and mental and emotional health could be at risk. We employ qualified and dedicated Social Workers and Counsellors to deliver this caring service, which is structured and intensive where necessary. Often we deal with a child’s issues long before any other agency would have processed the administration to enable a child to be cared for. Our unique approach is to intervene as soon as problems are identified and work with the children for as long as it takes to put things right.
bccs cares for over 1,600 new children each year and will be caring for around 3,500 at any one time. We work in partnership with over 100 schools and provide our service on site at school; teachers and support staff are ideally placed to spot a child who is experiencing problems and our relationship with them facilitates almost immediate care.
The schools we partner with are a mix of Secondary and Primary, Catholic and non-Catholic, in the county of Essex and the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. We work in areas of high deprivation and, in addition to this, 70% of the schools where we work are Catholic schools – on average Catholic schools contain pupils from lower than average areas of deprivation for the place where they are sited. Catholic schools also contain a far greater ethnic and socio-economic mix than average so we reach an incredibly wide spectrum of children. The work we do not only benefits the children we work with directly but also their families, their schools and their local communities.
Links to some examples of our work can be found below. The cases outlined reflect the dedication and commitment of our Social Workers and Counsellors, and also the great need for the service that we enable them to provide.
At bccs our biggest undertaking is the one-to-one work we do in schools with children. However, this is not right for every child and we are now in a position to widen the suite of services we offer.
Please see ‘Our Services’ for more information on the training we offer.
Jack's Story
Jayne's Story
Holly's Story
Our work with Emma
Building Friendships
Bereavement
Mental Health Awareness Week - Body Image
Anti-Bullying Week - Change Starts With Us
