£5m counselling plan will look after mental wellbeing of children

TAYSIDE: Pupils aged 10 and over to receive professional support in schools

Counsellors will be installed at schools across Tayside as part of a £5 million bid to improve pupils’ mental wellbeing, The Courier can reveal.

The ambitious plan aims to provide struggling students aged 10 and up with free professional support, even during school holidays.

Education chiefs at Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus Councils are preparing the scheme, which has been described as “especially timely” by a leading mental health charity.

It comes as a new study reveals how mental health has deteriorated among Scottish teenagers, especially 13-yearold girls and 15-year-old boys.

The Tayside plan is expected to launch in November. It will be paid for via a £60m fund unveiled by the Scottish Government last year.

The Scottish Association of Mental Health (SAMH), which has been campaigning for school counsellors since 2017, has praised the move and said it will be of particular help to pupils returning to school after a potentially distressing lockdown period.

Jo Anderson, the charity’s director of external affairs, said: “We welcome this collaborative approach across Tayside to increase availability of this important service. This announcement is especially timely given that children and young people are dealing with a lot of change as they return to school, and evidence gathers about the impact of the pandemic on mental health and wellbeing.”

She has also called for extra support for teachers and other school staff, citing a study carried out by SAMH in 2018 that showed two-thirds of teachers did not feel they had enough mental health training.

A procurement process, valued at £4.7m, has been launched by local councils. They say the plan ties in with the ongoing Tayside Mental Health strategy.

A spokesman for the Tayside Procurement Consortium, which is leading the bid, said: “Counsellors in schools will help support young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health as part of the continuum of support available in our schools.”

The aim is for each secondary school to have access to at least one counsellor.

“This... is especially timely given that children and young people are dealing with a lot of change as they return to school. JO ANDERSON, SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION OF MENTAL HEALTH

Picture: Mhairi Edwards. Pupils from Harris Academy, Dundee, head home after it was announced in March that schools were closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.