Counsellors to be in Scottish schools from September

Counselling services will be available to all secondary school pupils in Scotland by September next year, including during the school holidays to ensure continuity of care.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed on the allocation of £60 million over four years, which will build or expand high quality counselling services for children and young people.

Counselling services currently delivered by qualified and registered counsellors through Pupil Equity or Scottish Attainment funding will continue, enabling local authorities to reallocate those funds to other priorities to help close the attainment gap.

Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey said: “Children and young people can face many issues growing up and must have the right support available at the right time.

“Providing every secondary school with access to at least one counsellor by next year is a significant step forward in our package of measures to improve the mental health support available for children and young people.”

Announced on 4 September 2018, The Scottish Government is investing over £60 million in additional school counselling services across all of Scotland. £12 million will go to local authorities for 2019/20, rising to £16 million a year thereafter.

The funding is being distributed based on a fixed sum of £45,000 allocated to each Local Authority (LA), 7% on “schools located in remote rural areas”, and the remainder distributed on secondary pupil numbers.

The Scottish Government has developed a suite of aims and principles in partnership with COSLA to provide a framework on which local authorities can develop and design the access to a school counselling service.

LAs are currently considering and developing their plans for implementation of the access to counsellors in secondary schools programme. To support this, the Scottish Government have provided a guidance document for local authorities to draw upon.