Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary for Education, what plans his Department has to introduce a counselling service in all (a) schools and (b) colleges.

The Government recognises the value of school-based counselling but schools are best placed to make decisions on the most appropriate support to provide for their pupils, including school-based counselling. 61 per cent of schools and colleges already provide access to counselling services, including 84 per cent of secondary schools. To support more schools to do so the Government has published a blueprint for school counselling services. This provides practical, evidence-based advice on how to deliver high quality school-based counselling to all pupils. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools.

The Government is consulting on the green paper Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services. It includes proposals to introduce new Mental Health Support Teams to complement existing mental health provision, including school-based counselling.