Proposed change to counselling services

Overview

Voluntary Community Sector services for adults

Leicester City Council has undertaken a review of its adult social care voluntary community sector preventative services.

These are non-statutory services which play a role in delaying or preventing people from needing long term adult social care support.

62 services have been reviewed which provide a range of support for vulnerable adults including older people; carers, people with mental health needs; people with physical and sensory disabilities and people with learning disabilities. 

As part of the review the Council looked at what is needed in the City to ensure the funding is spent on services which meet these needs and to provide the best outcome for people who use them.

The Council is committed to maintaining its investment in the voluntary sector at this time. However, it is recommending some changes in how this money is spent in order to best deliver the services that are needed and support its priorities. This affects advocacy and counselling.

We are proposing to make changes to the way both advocacy and counselling services are provided. This is what we would like to hear you views on.

Why your views matter

We want to find out what people think about the proposed change to the counselling services provided by the Voluntary Community Sector, currently funded by adult social care.

Following a review of services we are proposing to change the way the council spends its money on preventative services.

The current position

Adult social care currently funds two counselling organisations: Leicester Relate which provides relationship counselling and Leicester Counselling Centre which provides general counselling on behalf of the council.

The consultation proposal

The proposal is to stop funding the current counselling services: Leicester Relate and Leicester Counselling Centre. The money will be reinvested into other wellbeing services.

The council wants to use its limited resources more effectively to help prevent people needing statutory adult social care services. It is the council’s intention to direct those who need counselling to other services which are available in Leicester.

If you require any further information, please read the service user leaflet below.

To take part in this consultation, please click on the Online Survey link below.

Consultation exercise with current providers and service users

In addition to this opportunity to have your say on this proposal, we will also run an engagement exercise with current providers and service users of the services, to communicate the outcome of the review and seek their views and opinions on the proposals.