Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of in-school counselling to successfully deliver early interventions across children’s and young people’s mental health services in England.

School-based counselling can play an important role as part of wider support for the mental health of children and young people. This includes reducing psychological distress that children and young people may experience as a result of facing a range of life difficulties, supporting young people who are having difficulties within relationships with family or friends, and supporting young people who are having difficulty managing their emotions, such as anger. Many pupils report improvements in their capacity to study and learn following counselling and frequently report that counselling helps them to concentrate, as well as increasing motivation for school and schoolwork.

As part of its CYP-Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, NHS England supported Higher Education Institutions to deliver training to enhance the effectiveness of counsellors in delivering evidence-based early interventions for mental health. In 2016/17, 14 counselling therapists were trained to work in a variety of settings and this year a further 13 will be trained to treat anxiety and mild depression. This training is being delivered by two training providers.