Concern over lack of on-site mental health counselling in schools

Far fewer state schools appear to be providing key services to support vulnerable students, including on-site counselling and parental support programmes, than were doing so a decade ago, says a new IPPR report on the future of education after the pandemic.

New survey data has also exposed a clear gulf in provision of all kinds of health support between state schools in more affluent areas and those serving least well-off communities - and an even wider gap with private schools.

Polling by Teacher Tapp for the IPPR report, conducted after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, found 48 per cent of teachers said their schools offered on-site counselling, and 37 per cent reported parental support programmes. Private schools and state schools in more affluent areas were far more likely to provide crucial support services such as counselling, access to a school nurse and after-school clubs than those in less affluent areas.   

Meanwhile, parental support services and before-school clubs were more likely to be provided by state schools in less affluent areas but are far from universal. More than a third of teachers (38 per cent) in the most deprived areas said their schools weren’t providing before-school clubs and more than half (53 per cent) said they didn’t provide parental support services.

Although direct comparisons with previous surveys are difficult to make, the new data suggest a decline in provision of these services over the last decade. A DFE study in 2010 found that 91 per cent and 86 per cent of schools were providing access to on-site counselling and parental engagement services respectively, compared to 48 per cent and 37 per cent of teachers who said their school was doing so in the new survey for IPPR.  

IPPR’s report, The New Normal: The future of education after Covid-19, argues that access to such support services will be crucial to address the sharp inequalities in children’s home-learning environment highlighted by the pandemic. Differences in pupils’ home and family backgrounds have long been acknowledged as a major cause of the attainment gap between students across England.

Teachers agree with this approach, with more than two-thirds of state-school teachers agreeing that parental support services (77 per cent) and on-site mental health services (also 77 per cent) are key to improving attainment, while more than half also felt that regular after-school clubs (52 per cent) are needed.    

Parents would support these measures, according to a separate survey conducted by Parentkind, a leading parent charity for the IPPR report. Almost one in three parents (30 per cent) said they wanted more involvement in their children’s education than before the pandemic, and nearly three-quarters (70 per cent) said schools should prioritise mental wellbeing as they adapt to the ‘new normal’.

To enable this, the report argues for schools to be developed as hubs for local services supporting children’s health and wellbeing. IPPR also proposes that the government establishes, and fully funds a national entitlement to an extended school day (with activities before and after school); puts in place a comprehensive programme of parent engagement and activities; and ensures on-site mental health and social work support in every school.

More broadly, the report calls for a rethink of educational priorities in the light of the pandemic, to include a national transformation fund to give all young people access to digital equipment and technology, and reflection on how the performance of both schools and their students are assessed - including the examination system.