If you would like to request support for a child or young person, then please read the below criteria carefully as we can only work alongside children & young people who meet our criteria.
Please be mindful that the Somerset Phoenix Project is a recovery service, not a crisis service.
Once you are confident that you meet the criteria, please download the most appropriate request for support form.
Our Criteria
Children and young people must:
- be a resident in the Somerset County local authority area.
- be aged 1-18 at time of the request for support.
- be at least 9-12 months post abuse. [see notes]
- be in a safe and stable place in their life to allow our therapeutic recovery work to have the maximum impact.
- no longer be experiencing/at risk of further sexual abuse or child exploitation
- not be subject of a current child protection plan.
- not be already receiving another specialist, therapeutic support service. (We will consider partnership working in some instances.)
If re-opening a case we have worked with before there must be a gap of 1 year between our support ending and us considering a new request.
Wait times
Specialist trauma recovery work:
10-12 months
Counselling:
12 months
Parent & Carer Support:
3-4 months
Professional consultation:
2 months
For more details see our Current Wait Times
Professionals making the request
The professional sending the request for support form will be required to attend an information gathering slot to discuss the request further before we consider it at triage. This is arranaged once we receive the form and will be held virtually. Phoenix is committed to partnership, holistic & systemic working & therefore insist that professionals invite all other key professionals to the information gathering slot, this will ensure the child/young person remains central to our offer.
Incomplete or old versions of our forms will be returned.
Parents requesting support for their Child or Young Person
If for whatever reason there are no current professionals supporting your child, you can ask for support on your child's behalf by filling in the parent/carer request for support form. If you need support to do so, please do reach out to us.
Children and Young People requesting support for yourself
If for whatever reason there are no professionals in your life supporting you right now, you can ask for support by filling in the self-referral request for support form. If you need support to do so, please do reach out to us.
Criteria notes:
All statutory agencies must have completed their assessments & safeguarding actions. We will work with a child/young person whilst there is an ongoing criminal investigation, but we will need to be informed of the progress of the investigation & have the appropriate contacts.
9-12 months post abuse lets a small window of time to pass to allow the child/ young person to get back in control of their own recovery journey. Trauma often makes everyone speed up and what a child/young person needs most is for everything to slow down.
When we are thinking about working alongside a child/young person in recovery, we are looking for as much safety & stability as possible. We appreciate, this is different for everyone, but in some instances, we may advise that other lived experiences are stabilised prior to recovery work commencing. For example, this might include living with domestic abuse, substance misuse, unstable accommodation.
