Our history

First exploratory meeting for a new youth counselling service takes place. Those present include Richard Schardt (deceased), John Ashdown, Marjorie Mason and Alan Peacock.

In its first year, No5, Reading Area Youth Counselling Service, supports with 72 clients.

375 new clients came to No5.

Report on the activities of the RAYC Service to the Youth and Community Section at BCC discusses the areas of work it undertakes:

• Counselling – carried out by 50 volunteers who have been carefully selected and trained. Telephone manned 24 hours a day and No5 open to callers from 9am-5pm, and 7pm-10pm\The Area Health Authority recently designated No5 as the official referral point for drug addicts and alcoholics. This is seen by the medical profession as an important service, and No5 has built up a good relationship with the various rehabilitation units in the field
• 13 Jul – BCC meeting of the Working Party established by former Youth and Community Section: Revenue Grants to Voluntary Organisations Applications 1977/78 – No5 as an organisation continues to flourish and is increasingly meeting the needs of a great number of young people
• The Director, Ken Humphreys, is involved with the birth of the British Association of Counselling, with NAYPCAS now forming the Youth Division of this umbrella organisation
• August – Reading Rock – 1500 leaflets distributed before the Festival; housed 120-150 young people each night under cover, thanks to the Baptist Church.

At a recent seminar in Germany, the British Delegation presented the work of No5 as a model for co-operation between voluntary and statutory sectors.

The volunteers working at No5 now number over 90. This led to the employment of a counselling supervisor.

Report of the Youth and Community sub-committee on the Youth Counselling Advice and Information Centre:

In 1984 the National Youth Bureau stated:  ‘Local authorities should ensure that all young people have ready access to appropriate generalist youth counselling and advisory agencies which young people find acceptable.’ The first specialised service was set up in Reading in 1970 and since that time has grown into a comprehensive counselling, advice and information service, locally and nationally recognised under the title No5.

At a national level, Berkshire has led the field initially by the establishment of the Reading Service, No5, one of the forerunners of such services. In addition, County Officers, Reading and Slough staff, have made a major contribution to the development of the National Association of Young Peoples Counselling and Advisory Services since its establishment in 1976.’

No5 tent at Reading Rock Festival is a great success – over 3000 people came to us for information and we operated a message leaving service.

No5 is the host to delegations from five other local authorities who are about to set up counselling agencies of their own. “No5 is recognised as a valuable model throughout the country” Pete Francis

Young people in Berkshire in the last decade of the 20th century: In any life issues can arise which cause distress and hurt, what differs is the capacity of people to cope and the quality of their peer group and family to be havens of security at such times. To seek counselling is one way of gaining help ….the Youth Counselling development came into being because it was known that in order to help young people a particular provision needed to be created. Most significantly such provision became part of an integrated service. The counselling provision helped build up a capability throughout the wider service to provide support for young people seeking support in understanding and acting to change some of their behaviour, responding differently to the environment, being more mature and effective as people.

The report on “Youth Counselling Services” published in 1989 detailed how the services provided fit into the overall provision of the service:

‘The Thompson Report recommended that each local authority should provide an integrated approach to youth counselling and information work through youth workers in youth centres, outreach and detached youth work projects and youth counselling agencies. Few authorities have developed such an integrated service, with the strategy and adequate funding to implement it, but two which have attempted to do so are Berkshire and North Yorkshire.

Berkshire has recognised for many years that the main thrust for youth counselling across its youth and community service comes from well-established youth counselling agencies, with their expertise made available to other youth workers through counselling training courses, and their influence encouraging all youth workers to be more concerned with the variety of needs of young people rather than solely making recreational provision for them.’

Over 80 trained counsellors on the books.

No5 now provides over 60 hours of counselling/and information and advice from Mon-Fri.

£85,800 grant from the National Lottery; new post of Accommodation Worker.

BCC Community Services Grants Section – No5 awarded £12,625!

The No5 website was created!

Now called ‘No5 Youth Counselling and Information’.

Second pilot project for schools counselling proved a success.

The total number of clients 13-19 years was 634.

Increase in clients and sessions in No5’s schools’ services – 138 clients and 546 sessions (John Madejski Academy, Reading Girls, Reading School, Highdown, Kendrick, Prospect Bridge Unit, Little Heath)

Reading Prison – 35 clients and 158 sessions.

36 counsellors operating 11 rotas 6 days a week.

2012-2013 – 3,435 counselling sessions to 487 clients and now regularly providing support to young people in schools in Reading.

• Developed schools service and now have 4 counsellors working in Prospect and Kendrick Schools providing 25 sessions a week; also provided a responsive, specialist service to other Reading Schools
• For specific individual pupils at John Madejski Academy, Birch Copse Primary and Denefield, including counselling for students on the autistic spectrum and trauma counselling

Provided over 3,795 sessions to 309 young people and their families; increase on last year, reflecting ongoing demand on our services; average 85 sessions per week, yet our waiting list is testament to greater need for our service.

Praise for No5 from the Head of Kendrick School: “We have worked with No5 for almost 15 years and have very much appreciated the vital service they provide to young people in Reading and in particular our own students.”

Invested in an early response project designed to tackle the waiting list and enable No5 to see young people within 2 weeks of contacting.

2015-2016: 73% increase in the number of children and young people contacting/being referred.

No5 continues to be consulted by other agencies and local authorities who are setting up their own information and counselling services – 11 consultations in the past year.

Now provide counselling to 3 new schools: Prospect, Reading Girls and Little Heath, in addition to Highdown and Kendrick.

2011-2012 – 2,949 sessions to 495 clients; 12% increase on the previous year.