With increasing concern about the number of children and young people in our schools with mental health difficulties, the Department for Education (DfE) is making it clear – all schools should have a counsellor: "Our strong expectation is that over time all schools should make counselling services available to their pupils." (Par 3.4, Counselling in Schools: A blueprint for the future, DfE, March 2015)
The government falls short of making this a requirement on the basis of school autonomy. However, Karen Cromarty, the senior lead advisor at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: "We've been working closely with the DfE and there is a strong commitment to ensuring that all schools, including primary schools, have this kind of provision."
Many secondary schools already have a counsellor or access to one. This is not the case for primary schools, especially those in England: "The provision is more advanced in Wales," Ms Cromarty explained, "and more research has been undertaken into the effectiveness of counselling provision there. This is lacking at the moment in England."
What is also lacking, perhaps, are the counsellors. What is clear throughout the DfE's Counselling in Schools document is that counselling is a very specialist area of knowledge. "You can't send a learning support assistant on a course for a weekend and expect them to come back as a counsellor," Ms Cromarty continued. "Using unqualified and poorly trained counsellors is unsafe, not only for those they're working with but for themselves."
Counsellors should not be confused with other pastoral support that a school might provide. Counsellors should:
- Have the minimum of a diploma in counselling (typically two years part-time study).
- Be on an accredited voluntary register.
- Ideally hold accreditation with a professional body.
It might come as a surprise to learn that at the present time there is no official statutory register for counsellors and no single regulatory board. Ms Cromarty would strongly recommend that schools considering employing a counsellor should check that they are at least on a voluntary register. Counsellors must also have clinical line-management at a recommended minimum of 1.5 hours per month.
Is it worth it?
Highfield Community Primary School in Sunderland employs a full-time Place2Be school project manager. She is a clinically trained counsellor who manages the team of 12 counsellors based in the school. Although the school pays for the project manager, they do not have to pay for the counsellors she manages. They are all at various stages of training and development and are volunteers in the school. However, their work is carefully monitored and clinical supervision is provided.
"This is the third school where I've implemented Place2Be," headteacher Simon Marshall explained. "That's how convinced I am of its value. It means that there is only the length of the corridor that children have to go down to be referred."
Like many headteachers, Mr Marshall is conscious of the hold-ups in referring to CAMHS and sees counselling services, like Place2Be, as one method of releasing the pressure: "If we can catch these difficulties in the early stages they might not get as far as needing CAMHS at all."
Highfield Primary is a large school with 450 children. Many of them face challenging circumstances and mental health difficulties at different times in their lives. However, Mr Marshall is keen to emphasise that mental health problems are not necessarily linked to disadvantage: "We do use our Pupil Premium money to help fund the provision but these difficulties cut through all categories and groups of children."
He would like to see greater regulation around counsellors: "There needs to be some kind of quality assurance. Using Place2Be I feel confident that this is taken care of for us. Unqualified and unsupported counsellors could do more harm than good."
Currently, there is capacity for 25 children having one-to-ones at any one time. They need this for all different kinds of reasons including neglect, abuse, domestic violence, bereavement and events that have brought them to crisis level. Place2Be is fully integrated into all aspects of school life. School staff have been trained at a basic level and everyone works together to identify those pupils who need support.
"If you came to our school," explained Mr Marshall, "you would find it difficult to identify who the Place2Be counsellors are. They are part of our school and have had a big influence on the culture here." Using the principles of Place2Be they also have Place4Parents and Place2Talk.
"Children can refer themselves too," he continued. "We have what looks like a ballot box where children can post just a picture of themselves to indicate that they want someone to talk to. Often that's all they need and the difficulty will soon be addressed."
Talking to Mr Marshall, his enthusiasm for Place2Be and the difference it has made to his school is evident. He would recommend other schools needing provision to approach them, although he recognises that this model may not suit everyone. He added: "Every school these days needs to be aware of mental wellbeing, it's about raising awareness generally."
What next for primaries?
Counselling in Schools proposes several models of delivery for school-based counselling. These include:
- Contracting individual counsellors directly.
- Engaging with a local authority team of counsellors.
- Contracting with a third party, for example within the voluntary sector.
- Paying for time of a specialist children's mental health service (CAMHS) counsellor.
Ms Cromarty commends the model of primary schools working with their secondary schools and sharing provision: "This is a strong model in my opinion as both schools are usually working with the same families."
However, she points out that no "one-size-fits-all", adding: "I think it's important that schools are clear about the purpose of them employing a counsellor. You need to decide exactly what you want the service to deliver. Is it for parents or children or staff training?"
Ms Cromarty is keen to emphasise that school staff are very good at knowing their pupils. But usually they don't have the time or the specific expertise to help adequately when emotional health problems come to light. She suggests that there are three stages that a counsellor might be part of.
Stage 1: A child starts to demonstrate change, quite often behaviourally. This could be acting out (angry or aggressive) or acting in (withdrawn and disengaging).
Stage 2: There is then an internal referral to the school counsellor and an assessment of the child involving the parents. A judgement will be made about whether counselling intervention is needed, how long it should be for, and what it should consist of – hopefully the child will then be back on track.
Stage 3: In some cases the child may have serious mental health conditions and at this point the child is referred. It is important that the counsellor has good links with other specialist mental health services. The counsellor may still be involved and provide more frequent support on the ground. Combinations can work well as long as there is effective communication.
Ms Cromarty acknowledges that currently statutory services are over-stretched and emphasises that counselling is not a substitute for these. However, it is an intervention that might help reduce the number of children who need referral in the first place.
Counselling does seem to be at least part of a solution for schools. However, such provision comes at a cost and schools will be left wondering, as they scratch around for the money, why such an essential service isn't an entitlement.
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Further information
- Counselling in Schools: A blueprint for the future (Department for Education, March 2015): www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools
- Future in Mind: Promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people's mental health (Department of Health, March 2015):http://bit.ly/1D5Hw0T