Grainger and Andrew King for help with stimulus preparation.

AimIn 2019 the Scottish Government introduced local authority funding to provide school counselling for 10 to 18 year olds. Since September 2019 this local education authority (LEA) has been developing and implementing its strategy to provide school counselling led by Psychological Services. This report summarises the first year’s evaluation.MethodSurveys were conducted with counsellors and school staff. Data on delivery including numbers accessing counselling, demographics, presenting issues and pre and post intervention measures were collected and analysed.FindingsThe integration of counselling within schools was felt to be a very effective model and positive impact was demonstrated. Counselling was skewed 2:1 towards girls and the peak age accessing counselling was 13 to 16 years. Individuals were accessing counselling for a wide range of wellbeing issues. Several themes are identified as supporting the effective delivery and development of counselling in schools.LimitationsThere was a heavy reliance on counsellors for accurate recording and reporting of data which may have impacted reliability. The current evaluation has not yet included feedback from children and young people themselves, their parents or wider stakeholders.ConclusionsThe first year implementation has demonstrated the value of integrating school counselling within school systems and as part of a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. The locality wide data indicated a gender bias towards girls, however this was not consistent across all settings and further exploration of this theme could be useful in understanding the factors that influence access to counselling across genders.

In Scotland, an increasing amount of emphasis is being placed on creating inclusive learning environments to meet the needs of all learners. An inclusion pedagogy requires a focus on all children in a classroom and a rejection of deterministic beliefs of ability. The current study examined the use of Addressing Barriers to Learning (ABLe), an inclusive practice resource developed and promoted by Dundee City Council Educational Psychology Service (DEPS). 11 educational psychologists (EPs) took part in a survey exploring their views surrounding the impact and process of using ABLe. Qualitative thematic analysis identified three key themes (Staff engagement, role of the EP, future needs) and six sub-themes (staff resistance, within-child conceptualisations, professional dialogue, evidencing impact, accessibility and format, and staged approach to implementation). The findings suggest that successful implementation of ABLe is facilitated by the collaborative coaching of inclusive pedagogy and functional links to the National Practice Model.