The integration and evaluation of school counselling in Scottish schools

Abstract

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.