Mental health in schools – Scottish Government News

Dedicated counselling service for pupils.

Professional counselling services will be available to all secondary school pupils who require it by September next year.

Agreement has been reached between the Scottish Government and COSLA on the detailed allocation of 60 million over four years. This funding 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.

School counsellors help support young peoples emotional, behavioural and mental health. Importantly, pupils will also have access to counsellors during school holidays, providing vital continuity of care.

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.

Background

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) (the equivalent of a team leader for each LA), 7% on schools located in remote rural areas (as defined by the Scottish Governments urban/rural indicator), and the remainder distributed on secondary pupil numbers.

The Scottish Government hasdeveloped 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.

Earlier this month it was announced that college and university students are to benefit from a 20 million investment in additional mental health counsellors.

Funding distribution and allocations - Scottish Government funding for delivering access to counsellors in schools

Local Authority

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

Aberdeen City

350,000

466,000

Aberdeenshire

574,000

774,000

Angus

264,000

346,000

Argyll and Bute

286,000

377,000

Clackmannanshire

131,000

164,000

Dumfries and Galloway

385,000

514,000

Dundee City

299,000

395,000

East Ayrshire

287,000

378,000

East Dunbartonshire

308,000

407,000

East Lothian

242,000

317,000

East Renfrewshire

311,000

411,000

Edinburgh, City of

705,000

955,000

Eilean Siar (Western Isles)

140,000

177,000

Falkirk

352,000

468,000

Fife

738,000

1,000,000

Glasgow City

955,000

1,300,000

Mental health in schools – Scottish Government News

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