Kooth

Frequently asked questions
What does the Kooth website consist of?
How does the service work?
What can young people talk about on Kooth?
Why do young people like it?
What is the model for the Kooth service?
Who works on Kooth?
What are the numbers for Kooth?
How much does Kooth cost?
What is the history of Kooth?
What central and local government agendas does Kooth enable us to meet?

What does the Kooth website consist of?
The site consists of a front end and a backend administration system that enables the management of functions of the site namely:

• Counselling
• Content management
• User management
• Moderation
• Referrals
• Workflow
• Case notes
• Statistics
• Policies and protocols

How does the service work?
Young people access the service by registering for free on the Kooth.com website. From there they can use a range of features:

• drop in chat with an available counsellor
• booked chat with a counsellor
• moderated, themed message boards
• private messaging which allows workers and young people to communicate with each other before or in between chat room sessions;
• an online magazine where young people can find out about local services, events and news that affects them;
• other features include local news, announcements and events of interest to young people, blogging, plus online therapeutic programmes around issues such as self harming behaviours.
• access to local directories of services for young people

The counselling sessions take place on the website in secure chat rooms and via a private messaging system.

What can young people talk about on Kooth?
Young people talk to counsellors and their peers about anything that is worrying or concerning them including:

• problems at home
• problems at school
• drink and drugs
• sexual health and sexuality
• anxiety, stress
• eating disorders
• Relationships

Why do young people like it?
Kooth provides the support, advice and guidance around emotional health and wellbeing issues which children and young people are looking for without the things that often put them off mainstream services - such as formality, regulations and procedures.

Kooth is perceived as a cool brand. It is seen by young people as professional but also an open-to-all, informal, welcoming and non-establishment service. Young people can discuss anything they want. This serves to bring a wide range of young people to the site - even those that wouldn't otherwise ask for help. Young people don't see it as a mental health service as such - it's a place where they can comfortably and without embarrassment or fear of ridicule talk about their problems, no matter how minor or major.

Kooth offers young people a way of receiving free counselling and expert advice services which is:

• anonymous
• confidential
• non-establishment
• available 24 hours a day via a medium they feel comfortable using.

Young people find 'talking' on the Internet about their problems easier than doing so face-to-face plus they can receive help at the point of need.

A key strength of the service is that it provides a mechanism where young people can talk about difficult issues in an open and honest way whilst maintaining their anonymity until they are ready to come forward and access face-to-face services. Young people have reported that it is this ability to disclose their concerns whilst maintaining a 'locus of control' about what happens next, that they particularly like.

What is the model for the Kooth service?
Local authorities and/or Primary Care Trusts commission to have the service delivered in their area to their population of young people.

Commissioners pay:

• an annual fee for the platform, which includes the software licence and the basic Kooth service
• a fee based on the number of counselling hours and training sessions they require and the nature and extent of marketing to young people they wish to do

Kooth works alongside statutory services within the Children's Trusts to provide a service to young people on the edge of care, those who are in care and other vulnerable young people. The service works closely with social workers, residential social workers, teachers, pupil referral units along with workers from tier one such as school nurses, learning mentors and Connexions.

Outreach work takes the form of 1-to-1 work and family support. How that is delivered varies from authority to authority. For example in Stockport, there is a dedicated designated outreach worker whereas in other authority areas face-to-face counselling is delivered through existing family support services.

Within each local authority area, there is a Multi-Agency Steering Group and an Active Management Group - which Kooth representatives attend - to ensure the service is multi-agency in outlook and in the development of referral pathways. Workers from other agencies can make their services available through Kooth.

Who works on Kooth?
The service is staffed by a team of specially trained professional therapists and counsellors. The therapists employ mix of approaches including CBT, person centred and psychodynamic. The service works across tier one and two and offering packages of support to tier three.

The counselling team also fully moderates the site checking the suitability of all the content to make sure Kooth.com remains a safe site for young people to use.

What are the numbers for Kooth?
As of April 2009, Kooth was available to 563,456 young people aged 11 to 25 in 11 local authority/PCT areas in England & Wales. As of the end of September 2008, 10,134 (2.1%) young people were registered users and 967 were active users (0.2%).

In the quarter-ended September 2008, 2,553 counselling hours were delivered and young people spent 3,168 hours on the site.

How much does Kooth cost?
This will vary on the number of counsellor hours delivered. Please contact us to discuss this further.

What is the history of Kooth?
Kooth was originally funded by the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Communities and Local Government) as an 'Invest To Save' initiative in 2003.

Kooth is a first-of-its-kind service and has won numerous prestigious awards and commendations for its innovative approach.

When it launched, Kooth was truly pioneering as it represented the first time that a local authority had brought together a range of multi-disciplinary teams and services working with young people and families, enabling young people and families a single point of referral into an online gateway.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council was the first local authority to launch Kooth in March 2004. Cheshire County Council was next in January 2006, followed by Halton Borough Council, Warrington Borough Council, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council and Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

Kooth has always moved with the times, adapting to the needs of service commissioners and young people alike.

What central and local government agendas does Kooth enable us to meet?
Kooth delivers a wide range of measurable and important benefits for commissioners and for young people. For local authorities, the Kooth model brings the following aspects of the Every Child Matters methodology into play:

• universal access, early identification, diagnosis and intervention
• a focus for joined-up working and referrals
• involvement of young people
• fostering positive relationships
• the common assessment framework
• a non-establishment culture

Kooth can also used to deliver in relation to the following Youth Matters outcome areas:

• better support to deal with problems
• opportunities to make a contribution
• better information, advice and guidance about issues that are important to young people

In terms of delivering in relation to Standard 9 of the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services Kooth offers an out of hours service to young people across the week and into the weekend.

If you have any questions not answered here then feel free to call us now on 0845 330 7090 or contact us