A blueprint for the future? Counselling in Schools

Departmental advice for school leaders and counsellors March 2015

As a doctor of counselling and psychotherapy of some 27 years practice I was particularly interested to read the recent DfE report around counselling provision in schools.

The report sets out to outline the Governments aspirations for counselling and mental health provision in schools for 2020. The report seeks to raise the profile of mental health issues in schools (p5) as well as recommending suitable provision for pupils experiencing mental health problems within the education system.
For me a report such as this is long overdue as it finally acknowledges how random mental health provision has been in our schools up to this point. Schools have differed enormously from what they have offered and the range has been diverse and unstructured. Some schools have seen mental health provision to be no more than appointing a member of staff who seems caring and kind to be in charge of pupil wellbeing and emotional care to schools that have a robust counselling service in place able to conduct in-house assessments and referrals and a highly efficient appointment system.

The DfE report seeks to implement the following robust measures:

• That mental health has a high profile in every school with pupils, staff and parents aware that a school based counselling service will be offered
• That counselling is seen as a whole school approach to emotional health and pupil well-being
• The service is independent but integrated into the school
• That a counselling room be specifically designated that is accessible, private, secure, safe and welcoming
• The Counsellor is professionally qualified, accredited and works within an ethical framework.
• That the counsellor be provided with appropriate professional supervision
• That the counsellor has a knowledge of mental disorders and the evidence base for effective treatments
• That pupils be involved in the development of the services
• That there are clear referral procedures in place and that this includes the provision for self-referral by pupils
• That there is a complaints procedure accessible to all
• That there are protocols in place for working with, and referring onto, other agencies
• That the counselling service operates on equals opportunity policy and includes gender, disability, race and sexual orientation.

Overall the report seeks to raise the profile of mental health in our schools and to have robust provision available for the wellbeing of our students.

I feel that the report is long awaited and the measures proposed to be in place by 2020 are indeed ambitious. Teachers that I have spoken to from a diverse range of schools have already raised the following concerns:

• That they are not even aware of this report
• How will this be funded?
• How can we afford to lose space for a counselling room?
• How will the booking system be managed?
• How will time out in “in-house” counselling impact the pupils study?

These are indeed valid concerns and the on-line magazine “Headteacher Update” (accessed 5th Oct 2015) acknowledges the worthwhile venture of including a counselling service in school but is sceptical regarding implementation:

“Counselling does seem to be at least part of a solution for schools. However, such provision comes at a price and schools will be left wondering, as they scratch around for the money, why such an important service isn’t an entitlement”.

I have no doubt that in-house counselling in our schools would be an excellent step in the right direction regarding pupil’s mental health and the teachers that I have spoken too would welcome anything that improved pupil emotional wellbeing so they are supportive of it too. The stumbling block, as I see it, will be that this reports takes us to a position that we are in at the present time were some schools will be in a position to provide the service better than others and the one-size fit that the report seems to promote will be impossible to implement across the board.

Are there any ways forward from this position? Ms Cromarty from the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists was an advisor for the DfE report. Ms Cromarty recommends a model whereby primary schools work with their secondary school in sharing provision. Commenting in the online “Headteacher Update” (accessed 5th Oct 2015) magazine she comments:

“This is a strong model in my opinion as both schools are usually working with the same families”.

An approach that I would see as an equally viable and workable option would be for local schools to come together and pool resources to provide some type of counselling support on a rotating basis among the cluster schools as I feel that even a small consideration of provision is better than none at all and this type of provision could be robustly monitored by the schools and evaluated by the group for strengths and weaknesses.
In whatever ways the report is implemented I have no doubt that it is a step in the right direction for highlighting the importance of children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Bill Naylor
Senior Lecturer in Counselling