Sue Bell trained in drama, and has played many parts as a professional actress, director and stage teacher.

But the role she will always be remembered for is as founder and director of Kids Inspire, the Essex charity.

It was set up by Sue in Chelmsford seven years ago, after she had taken time out to start a family.

She then acquired additional training as a counsellor and worked for Essex County Council’s Special Needs and Psychology Department.

She says: “Drama teachers are always being told that they can’t be social workers as well, but I remember thinking, ‘well I’m able to do both’.”

Kids Inspire answered “a need that wasn’t being met at the time”.

Sue says: “Our caseload consists of extremely complex cases involving emotional behavioural difficulties.”

Kids Inspire’s clients tend to be young people in some sort of crisis who have difficulty communicating their feelings in words Sue says: “They express themselves in metaphor and image.”

As a caseworker, Sue drew on her drama training. In one-to-one sessions, she communicated through puppets.

She even used musical instruments.

She and the clients used no words, but “talked” to each other using the musical notes in place of speech. The results of these methods speak for themselves.

One case involved a girl from Chelmsford with extreme emotional behavioural difficulties.

“She first came to me when she was 15,” Sue says. “She was truanting from school, shoplifting, she was cutting her own arms, she was sexually promiscuous, she had suicidal ideas.”

Until she came to Sue, all attempts to get to the roots of her behaviour had been fruitless. “She was frightened, and wouldn’t talk,” Sue says.

Sue persuaded the girl to work with clay and pipe-cleaners, and eventually the mini-sculptures began to form revealing patterns.

Sue says: “It turned out she had been abused by her brother when she was young.”

The girl responded positively to Sue’s therapeutic methods,, returned to school, and then went on to Cardiff University, where she gained a degree in music.

She is now considering a career in social work or psychotherapy herself.

Kids Inspire has brought Sue’s methods mainstream.

Its obvious effectiveness meant that it expanded rapidly. It now has branches in Colchester, Billericay, Clacton, Brentwood and Maldon.

It employs 30 people, drawing on a range of specialities. It also fields mentors, who act as guides and friends to young people as they re engage with the world.

“It is not a case of one size fits all,” Sue says. “We have a bespoke approach, tailored to each individual’s needs.”

For an outsider, Kids Inspire’s clearest strength is its simple faith in people, and the conviction that troubled lives can be healed.

Sue says: “People lose their way. We can help them find it again,”

Her main regret is she is so busy running the organisation that she can only muster a small amount of time for the core work.

“I maintain a couple of cases, to keep my hand in, but I have to wear many other hats,” she says.

A typical day would involve time spent on case allocation, meeting families, line management, and the endless task of fund-raising.

Kids Inspire also acts as a training centre for between ten and 20 social workers a year, all of whom need to be monitored.

Sue says: “The days can be pressurised. But I thrive on the work.”