Counselling evaluation report

If you’ve used our services and support our work in any way, you’ll probably know that the counselling service for adults has been busier than ever. Although we’ve increased capacity over recent years, opening seven days a week and operating from seven sites across Birmingham and Solihull, people have had to wait months for their counselling sessions to start.

This is part of a national crisis in the sector, but we want to reflect on what we can do locally as an organisation to reduce waiting times while still offering trauma-informed, survivor-centred support. We have commissioned an independent evaluation into our counselling service for adult survivors of sexual violence. Part one of the two-part report is here.

Some of the findings: Specialist providers, like RSVP, have seen an unprecedented rise in demand for their services in recent years, resulting in most agencies having 6-12 months waiting times and some agencies even closed their waiting lists to new clients.

In the research period, adult counselling at RSVP’s city centre and outreach locations grew from 179 sessions per week to 190 per week.

RSVP provide groups, written self-help and an online self-help tool for people while they wait for counselling, but survey and focus group respondents didn’t always know about these things. We need to advertise these services more.

People don’t always know that to expect from counselling, and would benefit from more information so they could feel better prepared and make the most of their counselling. We will compose a pre-counselling information sheet.

A service for supporters was recommended. We are piloting two groups, one for parents of sexually abused children, one for other supporters of survivors (partners, friends etc). Contact us on 0121 643 0301 if you would like attend a supporters group.

If you have any comments on the report, please contact Sarah Lafford sarah@rsvporg.co.uk