allyance is a social enterprise not for profit in-school counselling service. It was originally formed in April
2009 by schools in the CABMAG (Comberton, Bassingbourn, Melbourn and Gamlingay) area as a
response to the lack of high-level mental health support for children who were experiencing or had
experienced difficult life events, particularly those of primary age. The schools agreed to pool funding
in order to use economies of scale to provide an enhanced and flexible service. With support from the
Local Authority, until recently in the form of the Dedicated Schools Grant, schools within the allyance
cluster are able to access high quality therapy at a subsidised rate. Through our network of
counsellors allyance also provides services for schools outside the cluster to buy into.
The allyance clinical team consists of representatives from different therapeutic disciplines and
includes:
A Clinical Supervisor
A Music Therapist
Play Therapists
The therapists are a strong and stable professional team who all share the same vision and
commitment to allyance. They have a lot of experience of working in primary schools and therefore
understand the institutional context of working in an education setting, including liaison with relevant
staff and parents / carers. They can also attend multi-agency meetings where appropriate.
All members of the allyance team are members of the relevant professional body according to their
qualifications, e.g. PTUK (Play Therapy United Kingdom), UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy),
BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), BAMT (British Association of Music
Therapy). As a part of their accreditation and membership they receive professional supervision from
these bodies, in addition to support and the requirement to follow their ethical framework. This complements the half-termly group allyance-specific sessions run by our clinical
supervisor which allow them to reflect on current cases.
Therapists recieve regular safeguarding child-protection training and have enhanced DBS; allyance schools are also responsible for providing their counsellors relevant specific Child
Protection / Safeguarding information about their school each September. Therapists have access to the annual "Keeping Children Safe in Schools" updates.
The running of allyance is overseen by a steering group which includes cluster headteachers. The
steering group meets termly to discuss finances / accounts, training of counsellors, (anonymised)
pupils in counselling etc.
The allyance model in practice...
Schools indicate before the start of the academic year how many therapy sessions they require. Referrals for therapy are then discussed with the therapist and the appropriate paperwork completed.
The length of the session depends on the age of the child who has been referred.
allyance therapy is based on need rather than a fixed number of sessions.
The therapist may also spend time liasing with school staff, parents / carers, writing reports and attending multi-agency meetings.
Each therapist will start and end with a strengths and difficulties questionnaire completed by
child, parents / carers and school. This is then repeated approximately 6 weeks after therapy sessions
have started to inform discussions about the progress.
Therapists will liaise with school staff regarding any potential strategies which might support
the young person.
Where appropriate, therapists will help year 6 students to prepare for transition to secondary
school. In some cases they may continue to support the young person for a short time after
they have transferred to Year 7.
Schools within the Bassingbourn and Melbourn clusters may take advantage of a slightly reduced rate.
In cases where extra therapy hours are required during the year, allyance will aim to use its
overall size and flexibility to support the relevant child/school. In addition to 1:1 counselling we can
offer bespoke packages tailored to the needs of individual schools. (This is not a definitive list if a
school has a particular request where possible we would be happy to accommodate).
