Stepping Stones Organisation (Mental Health)

Who we are

Stepping Stones provides a range of mental health support services to people who have mild to moderate mental health conditions. The people who use our services are called ‘members’. The services are person centred and collaborative in their approach and are informed by a number of codes of practice and ethics; Health and Social Care Standards, the Scottish Social Services Codes of Practice, the Confederation of Scottish Counselling Associations (COSCA), British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Code of Ethics. The services include group work; peer support opportunities; 1:1 support with a mental health support worker; guided self-help, bereavement support, Enhanced Guided Self Help and Person Centred Counselling (PCC). Stepping Stones offers a ‘Support Service’, which is registered with the Care Inspectorate. A team of support staff help facilitate this service. Stepping Stones is a registered charity in Scotland, it receives the majority of its funding from West Dunbartonshire Council Health and Social Care Partnerships. However, certain core costs and projects are funded by other organisations or fundraised income. The organisation and its Fundraising Volunteers are bound by the codes of the Fundraising Regulator, OSCR, and best practice guidance from the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. Each year Stepping Stones receives approx. 1000 referrals. We currently offer a blended approach to support delivery, with options for face to face, telephone, or video call appointments. Face to face appointments are offered and encouraged where service members may get more out of the support they are offered, however, since the Covid-19 pandemic began we have seen more people who are looking for hybrid support. Support preferences are discussed with service members at the referral and assessment stage.

Our culture and values

At Stepping Stones our mission and aims are to:

1. To provide support and promote wellbeing to individuals and families in West Dunbartonshire and the wider community, giving them the opportunity to cope with and recover from issues that affect their mental health and wellbeing;

2. To provide a network of self-help groups that empowers and enables members of Stepping Stones to develop peer support opportunities and participate more effectively within the wider community;

3. To provide counselling, therapies and support in the relief of issues that affect mental health and wellbeing;

4. To insure mental health stigma is tackled when it exists, demonstrating ongoing commitment to anti-discriminatory practice, equality and diversity;

5. To promote and organise co-operation in the achievement of the above objects.

To achieve this, we believe in, and use our Values. Our values are based on the acronym BELIEVE. 

Be the best that we can be to support our people;  The organisation will ensure that it supports its human resource in whatever way it can to ensure our services meet the expectations of the people who utilise them; 

Empower and enable members to connect with their communities;  Support our members to fulfil their potential and contribute to their communities in a way that is meaningful and helps build their resilience and capabilities; 

Lead the way in addressing inequality in our communities;  Stepping Stones will have a community presence and will undertake activities that address wider issues that impact the way mental health is perceived in the public domain; 

Innovate so that we can be great at what we do;  We will seek ways in which to design services that have the greatest impact on our mission and maximise the organisations potential; 

Empathise with and support those who reach out for help;  We will ensure our service portfolio is relevant and up to date and respond as quickly as we can to those who are in distress; 

Visualise a better future for people with mental health issues;  We will ensure what we do is available to all sections of the community by marketing our services appropriately; 

Expect the best out of our staff, volunteers, trainees and peers;  We will give our colleagues the opportunity to be the best that they can by supporting them in their aspirations for personal development to increase their competences and build their capacity and resilience; 

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

At Stepping Stones we have a regularly reviewed EDI policy, we are a disability confident employer, and a Neurodiversity aware employer.