Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Counselling in schools

14 replies

SaltySheepdog · 04/11/2021 05:56

I’ve always assumed each school has its own counsellor but this week discovered this isn’t the case. DSs mental health has suffered post lockdown but school can only offered chats with an overworked pastoral person due to a lack of counsellor. After some online research I found this link below. Worrying that despite a serious increase in mental health issues, young people don’t have access to counselling as standard.

www.bacp.co.uk/news/campaigns/school-counselling/

OP posts:
Simonjt · 04/11/2021 06:01

How much money do you think schools have? For most schools this just isn’t financially viable.

Hercisback · 04/11/2021 06:06

I'm surprised you're surprised. Schools have barely any funding.

Whyarewehardofthinking · 04/11/2021 06:07

We have a full time counsellor but the only reason we can afford to is by having over half of the classes in the school over 32, and the rest.no smaller than 28, even.our absolute bottom sets. We decided to not recruit additional teaching staff to fund this after several parent and close family deaths from COVID; as SLT I was spending nearly every free minute of the day dealing with mental health issues so this was the route we took. The counsellor is also seeing staff.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
QueenofLouisiana · 04/11/2021 06:18

We don’t even have midday assistants! There may be schools, bigger ones, who have this but most won’t. That austerity agenda that theTories have been following has had a great impact. We have a a family support practitioner who is qualified in art, play and music therapy; but she is also our link with social care, supporting families with things from housing to DLA, helping with lunches and at the moment covering Covid related gaps in the general support staff. She doesn’t have much time to see children.

I’d be interested to know how many workplaces offer free access to a counsellor on demand as a comparison though.

CAMHs is 2 year wait and we’ve been asked to stop referring to the well-being hub as they are overwhelmed by demand.

Sirzy · 04/11/2021 06:22

In an ideal world it would be available but sadly we don’t live in an ideal world.

Ds is in year 7 and thankfully his school do have a good pastoral system including some staff with councilling qualifications. This week the school has has a bereavement and their presence has certainly been invaluable to help students

Pittapatta · 04/11/2021 06:44

QueenofLouisiana Art/music/play therapy are registered professions that required a 2-3 year MA and registration with a professional body. I work in schools as one of those jobs and it took me 3 years to qualify. I would never claim to do all three. They are protected titles and if someone uses the title they need to have the knowledge and experience to work in that way. You wouldn't want to see a GP who wasn't in fact qualified would you?

It sounds like they are using creativity to help the children which is great but let's not devalue these highly skilled professions.

Original poster
SaltySheepdog · 04/11/2021 08:48

Counselling is skilled work and very different to pastoral care.

My friends DDs school has a counsellor and she’s been invaluable, helping DD work through self esteem issues and divorce

OP posts:
Punxsutawney · 04/11/2021 08:54

Pre Covid, Ds had some counselling at school. He has additional needs and school said they would support him. After they organised the counselling, they informed us that we had to pay for it and sent us a bill.

Unfortunately it didn't help Ds at all.

Original poster
SaltySheepdog · 04/11/2021 14:11

That’s frustrating

OP posts:
Minfilia · 04/11/2021 16:29

DDs primary school had a TA who was a trained therapist, she helped her with bereavement counselling in child friendly way.

She now attends a large secondary and they have their own CAMHS team.

Maybe it’s a regional thing.

Pittapatta · 05/11/2021 10:46

CAMHS teams are nhs based and employed via nhs. They do not work in-house in schools. The school might have a therapist/ counsellors/ pastoral staff employed in the school which is great. But CAMHS is part of the NHS employment and staff do not work in one school only

Tickledtrout · 05/11/2021 12:24

Welsh government fund ypcs ( young person's counselling service) in every high school and for primary aged pupils in y6. They're bacp registered and children can self refer. Six week counselling offer usually.
Camhs /nhs do get funding for inreach too but honestly they're not the best

Saltyquiche · 06/11/2021 08:36

That’s proactive particularly in light of covid and the rise of mental health issues, England should take a leaf out of the Welsh governments book

MrsWooster · 06/11/2021 09:16

Unless you’re extremely lucky in your school, do NOT accept ‘chat with a member of the pastoral team’ as a fob off for your child. There was a time when the pastoral team were skilled, trained and experienced, though still not ‘proper’ counsellors. This is no longer the case in most schools. Pastoral teams are too often recruited as bodies on NMW to ensure that the minimum number of expensive qualified teaching staff need to be employed.
Search locally for experienced counsellors who can /will work with young people.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page