Key benefits

Kooth is effective

Kooth is widely used and highly valued by young people. Over 8,000 chat room counselling sessions take place every year. 82% of users rate the Kooth service as either good or excellent

Kooth intervenes early with at risk and vulnerable young people

In 2009/10 Kooth counsellors helped 337 young people who presented with one or more than one of the 'in care precursors' - the cost of putting this many young people into care would be around £170,000 per day

Kooth was awarded the LGC Award for Innovation in 2005, the Big Chip Award for Best Public Sector project in 2005, and the Local Government IT Excellence Award for Service Transformation in 2008

Kooth is accessible

Kooth breaks the stigma surrounding mental and emotional health for young people - it is seen as a cool brand and an easy-to-use, credible and trustworthy service

As an online service, Kooth removes many of the cultural, attitudinal, structural and geographic barriers that stop young people using long established sources of advice and support - as one example, it is ideal for rural locations

84% of users report that they prefer online counselling to face-to-face or telephone support

Kooth serves as a complementary out-of-hours service for social workers and CAMHS

Kooth is a universal service and offers something for everyone

Kooth is affordable

Kooth operates with a low cost base and the service works out less than other forms of counselling

Kooth is a more economical way of providing counselling and support

Did Not Attend (DNA) rates tend to be lower

Because Kooth counsellors work on a mix of booked appointment and drop-in clients, there is a greater throughput of clients

Kooth is outcome-focused

We measure planned outcomes and achieved outcomes for all the young people who we provide counselling to. We produce a wealth of management information for customers and our managers