School counsellors can ease the burden on teachers struggling to support the growing number of children with mental health issues.

Jo Holmes, our Children, Young People and Families Lead, has reiterated our call for a paid counsellor in every secondary school, academy and FE college in England to bring them in line with the rest of the UK.

She was responding to a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine highlighting the strains that schools and teachers are facing in order to support schoolchildren.

School counsellors

Jo said professional counsellors should be available in all schools, as she countered the report鈥檚 suggestion that teachers be trained to promote good mental health, provide support and respond to children鈥檚 issues.

鈥淭eachers are there to teach,鈥� said Jo. 鈥淎side from the training and supervision that would be required, teachers haven鈥檛 got the time in their day to provide the level of mental health support that鈥檚 needed.

鈥淚t鈥檚 great that schoolchildren have such good relationships with their teachers that they can go to them with their issues as their first port of call.

鈥淏ut teachers need somewhere to signpost to, they are not trained to carry this additional burden and they must look after their own mental health too.

鈥淪chool counselling is ideal as it forms part of the whole school approach.

鈥淚t also reaches the missing middle of young people, those who do not meet the threshold for support for CAMHS (children and adolescent mental health services) but need more help than can be offered by by either pastoral staff, or mental health support teams in those schools which have access to this additional support.

Confidential

鈥淪chool counsellors are onsite, so they can build those relationships with young people who need to talk to someone, offering a confidential safe space so they can explore the many complex issues that a young person may be struggling with.

鈥淚t鈥檚 unrealistic to put that additional pressure on teachers. For a start they have nowhere to process these extensive mental health caseloads, so they鈥檇 need supervision, where would the time and resources be for that?鈥�

The report, titled , concluded that children's health needs weren鈥檛 being met by the health sector.

鈥淪chools and teachers provide vital support, but they are buckling under the strain of the demands placed on them,鈥� it said.

鈥淭o the extent that they perform public health and primary care roles, they should receive funding to support them to deliver these functions.鈥�

The report said that funding should come from the health sector, adding: 鈥淭he scale of investment in them must match the scale of the task they undertake: educating the nation's children, promoting their healthy development, and providing them with frontline health and wellbeing services.鈥�

Funding

But Jo said: 鈥淭he funding would be better invested in schools counselling.

鈥淎ccess to a trained, paid counsellor in every school provides young people with a service that鈥檚 focused on their needs, a safe space to help them understand and cope with what they鈥檙e going through. This includes an agreed time slot which teachers can鈥檛 always give.

鈥淐ounselling provision eases the growing strain on school staff and allows them to concentrate on teaching and the many other activities which make up the already jam-packed school day.鈥�