Over and above the skills required to develop effective joint problem-solving groups, however, trainee consultants also need to become aware of what is involved in setting them up.

Trainee consultant Yvette Cloete was forced to flee her home after vandals apparently took her job title to mean that she was a paedophile in August 2000.

What is being looked at in all case discussions is a sequence of focal points of which trainee consultants need to be made aware, to be able to highlight the interactional context of the difficulty.

Trainee consultants need to appreciate that the procedure of informing an interested school of the different structures that have been found to work well in different settings, and of inviting the school to decide which they might wish to develop in the first instance, is in itself an important part of preparing a supportive climate.