About CounselNote
CounselNote is a counselling record app for counsellors and pastoral teams in UK schools. It is designed around one idea: the most sensitive records a school holds should not need to leave the school's own computer.
What CounselNote is for
School counsellors need to keep structured, dated session notes, track progress with recognised outcome measures, and pass the minimum necessary information to their Designated Safeguarding Lead when a concern arises. Paper files get lost, and generic note-taking or cloud apps were not built around the way safeguarding works in UK schools. CounselNote was built for that specific job.
- Local-first and encrypted. All pupil and session data is stored on your own computer, encrypted with AES-GCM under a passphrase only you know. Nothing is sent to a CounselNote server.
- Built around UK safeguarding practice. The record structure and DSL summary follow the framework set by Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children.
- Honest about its limits. CounselNote is a private counselling workspace. It does not replace your school's statutory child-protection system.
The guides
Alongside the app, we publish free guides for UK school counsellors on record keeping, confidentiality, information sharing, subject access requests, consent and data protection. Each guide links to the official DfE, ICO, BACP and legislation sources it draws on, and is reviewed and updated when those sources change. The guides are general information, not legal advice.
Who makes CounselNote
CounselNote is made by 4CF Group, an independent software business based in the United Kingdom. We build focused tools for specific professional problems, and we keep CounselNote deliberately simple: no accounts, no tracking inside the app, and no access to your data.
Get in touch
- Questions about buying or school quotations: sales@counselnote.uk
- Technical support: support@counselnote.uk
- Privacy questions: privacy@counselnote.uk
See also our contact page, privacy notice and terms.