More funding for school counselling needed to tackle the scourge of self-harm
The recent Children’s Society survey indicating that more than a fifth of 14-year-oldgirls in the UK say they have self-harmed is a truly alarming statistic and highlights the mental health crisis we are facing.
Early mental health intervention can have an incredibly powerful impact on the lives of children and young people, such as those self-harm- ing, with benefits continuing into adulthood. The ability to access school-based counselling services at an early stage in a convenient location can prove truly transformational.
However, children and young people in Scotland are subject to a postcode lottery of access to support and it has been estimated that more than 250,000 have no access to school-based counselling services. Yet, unlike other parts of the UK, there are limited counselling services in Scotland and it is important that there is additional funding for this in the forthcoming Scottish Budget. Scotland is currently the only UK country with no national strategy for school-based counselling services.
By contrast, counselling services are guaranteed in all secondary schools in Northern Ireland and Wales. In Wales the vast majority of children and young people who received counselling (85 per cent) did not require any form of onward referral once counselling sessions had been completed.
The benefits are therefore obvious and the cost of five sessions of counselling is equivalent to just one contact with mental health services. In this context it has been estimated that it would cost around £9 million to provide counselling in all Scotland’s secondary schools, out of a total health budget of around £13.5 billion, a drop in the ocean. All pupils in Scotland’s schools should have access to trained counsellors in schools. The remarkable results from elsewhere speak for themselves. THE SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S SERVICES COALITION
TOM MCGHEE
Chairman, Spark of Genius
DUNCAN DUNLOP
Chief Executive, Who Cares? Scotland
STUART JACOB
Director, Falkland House School
NIALL KELLY
MD, Young Foundations
LYNN BELL
CEO, Love Learning Scotland