At The Purple Elephant Project, we understand that family life can be unpredictable and that sometimes plans need to change. At the same time, regular attendance and consistency are important parts of therapy. When we offer your child or family a regular appointment, that time is reserved especially for them for the duration of their therapeutic intervention. Wherever possible, sessions take place on the same day and at the same time each week, helping to provide the consistency and predictability that supports the therapeutic relationship.
Our therapists also commit this time to your child and spend time preparing for their work with them. Our cancellation policy helps us to protect this commitment, use our charitable resources responsibly and provide a fair and consistent approach for all the families we support.
We understand that cancellations are sometimes unavoidable. If you are unable to attend an appointment, please let The Purple Elephant Project know as soon as possible.
For fee-paying sessions please note the following charges will apply.
Notice is calculated from the scheduled start time of your appointment.
We will always appreciate as much notice as possible, even where a cancellation fee will still apply.
Some families receive therapy that is fully or partly funded by The Purple Elephant Project or another funder.
Although you may not be paying the full cost of the session yourself, the appointment and therapist’s time have still been reserved for your child and there is a cost to the charity in providing this support.
Where less than 24 hours’ notice is given, or an appointment is missed without notice, the session will normally count as one of your allocated funded sessions.
If you make a contribution towards the cost of your sessions, the cancellation charges above will apply to your usual contribution.
Where a child has a limited allocation of funded sessions, repeated cancellations or missed appointments may significantly reduce the amount of therapy they are able to receive. If two consecutive sessions are missed or cancelled, or there is a pattern of non-attendance, we will review the funded allocation with you and your therapist.
This is not intended to penalise families when circumstances are difficult. The purpose of the review is to consider what is in the best interests of your child, whether this is the right time for therapy to continue and how the remaining funded support can be used most effectively.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are going to be late.
We will do our best to make use of the remaining appointment time, but unfortunately we cannot extend a session beyond its scheduled finishing time.
If you arrive more than 20 minutes late, it may not be possible or therapeutically appropriate to continue with the session. In these circumstances, the appointment will normally be treated as a missed session and the full fee will apply, or it will count towards your funded session allocation.
We understand that families take holidays and that there may be other times when you know in advance that your child will be unable to attend therapy.
Please let us know as early as possible about any planned absences.
If your child is going to miss two consecutive sessions or more, we ask that you discuss this with both The Purple Elephant Project and your therapist in advance wherever possible.
Short planned breaks can usually be accommodated. However, regular attendance is important to the therapeutic process and longer or repeated breaks can affect the continuity of therapy.
If you are planning an extended period away from therapy, we will talk with you and your therapist about what is in the best interests of your child. Depending on the length of the break and the individual circumstances, we may agree a planned pause and restart, review the regular appointment time, or consider whether it would be more appropriate to bring the current period of therapy to an ending.
We cannot always guarantee that the same regular appointment time will remain available following an extended break.
Our therapists also take holidays and may occasionally need time away from work.
Wherever possible, we will give you reasonable notice of planned therapist absence.
If a session is cancelled by The Purple Elephant Project or your therapist, you will not be charged and the session will not count towards any funded allocation.
We know that sometimes things happen which are genuinely unexpected and outside a family’s control.
If you have to cancel at short notice because of exceptional circumstances, please talk to us. We will consider individual circumstances fairly and may waive a cancellation charge or reinstate a funded session at our discretion.
If your child misses a number of sessions, even where notice has been given, we may talk with you and your therapist about whether continuing therapy at that time is in your child’s best interests.
We may need to review the regular appointment, agree a pause in therapy or bring the intervention to an appropriate ending. This also helps us to make sure that our limited therapy capacity and charitable resources are being used as effectively and fairly as possible.
We would always aim to discuss this with you and make decisions with your child’s needs at the centre.
Please notify your therapist directly if you need to cancel or will be late for an appointment.
Alternatively, if you would like to contact us directly, you can do so by calling:
Telephone: 0208 744 1733
We will record the cancellation and let your therapist know.
We hope this policy provides a fair balance between recognising the realities of family life and protecting the therapy time and charitable resources that we commit to every child and family we support.
Thank you for helping us to provide consistent and effective therapeutic support to as many children and families as possible.
