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CWE-CWR-14 Compassion, Welfare & Environment Community Welfare & Relief CORE Excellence v2.9.7

Availability of trained counsellors or referral pathways

Assesses the availability of confidential and professional counselling services, either in-house or through formal referral partnerships, to support the mental and emotional wellbeing of the community. Pastoral/faith guidance (e.g., imam support) must be clearly separated from clinical counselling, with staff trained to triage and refer to qualified professionals when issues exceed pastoral scope.

Assessment Questions
  1. Does the organization have a formal system for providing or referring community members for mental and emotional counselling?
  2. Are the individuals providing counselling (in-house) or the partner organizations (referral) professionally trained and qualified?
  3. Is there a documented policy and procedure for handling counselling requests, ensuring confidentiality, and managing referrals?
  4. Is there a documented risk triage and safeguarding escalation pathway (including out-of-hours and emergency signposting), and is it used consistently?
  5. Do counsellors receive regular clinical supervision, and is scope-of-practice defined (what is/ isn’t offered)?
  6. How are counselling records stored, accessed, and retained, and what are the confidentiality exceptions (e.g., serious harm, safeguarding)?
  7. How does the organisation integrate Islamic concepts ethically (e.g., tazkiyah, du’a) without substituting clinical care, and how are ruqyah requests handled/refereed?
  8. How is the availability of these support services communicated to the community?
  9. Does the organization collect feedback or measure outcomes to assess and improve the effectiveness of its counselling services or referral partnerships?
  10. Are the counselling services offered or referred to equipped to handle issues with cultural and Islamic sensitivity?
Evidence Requirements
  • Policy and procedure documents for counselling and confidentiality.
  • Counselling-specific Privacy Notice + Record of Processing Activities (ROPA) entry and retention schedule.
  • Completed DPIA for counselling/referrals and secure case management tooling.
  • Safeguarding triage/escalation flowchart and anonymised audit of 1–2 cases (process compliance only).
  • Clinical supervision policy and anonymised supervision attendance log.
  • Partner due diligence pack (accreditation, insurance, safeguarding policy, complaints process, equality/access statement).
  • List of in-house counsellors with their qualifications/certifications.
  • Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) or formal agreements with partner counselling organizations.
  • Communication materials promoting the service (e.g., website pages, brochures, posters).
  • Anonymized data on service usage (e.g., number of referrals, types of issues).
  • Anonymized client feedback forms, surveys, or testimonials.
  • Training materials or guidelines provided to staff on Islamic and cultural sensitivity in counselling.
Scoring Guidelines
LevelRatingDescription
5 5/5 Comprehensive in-house service; median first contact ≤7 days; trauma-informed training embedded; outcomes/feedback used in quarterly PDCA; published annual (anonymised) wellbeing report; robust equality/access metrics.
4 4/5 Service is regularly available; documented service standards; median first contact ≤14 days; supervision monthly; anonymised usage tracking; annual review and partner QA.
3 3/5 A basic service or referral pathway exists but has limited availability
2 2/5 Minimal or ad-hoc support available
1 1/5 No counselling service or formal referral pathway.

Related Criteria

CWE-CWR-01 Weekly Dignified Food Support Service (Food Bank, Pantry, or Hot Meals) CWE-CWR-02 Hardship-grant / zakāt emergency fund CWE-CWR-03 Volunteer management: hours logging, safer recruitment & safeguarding CWE-CWR-04 Partnerships with local authorities and community organisations (NGOs/VCSE) CWE-CWR-05 User-impact survey results
Version
2.9.7 2025-11-05

Discussion (1)

Administrator 2026-03-07 11:08:01.270982

📋 **Version updated: 1.0.0 → 2.9.7** **Changes:** Updated islamic_references from mizan-297.json

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