Children and young people mental health services: school counselling and community support

School counselling services (July 2023 to March 2024)

Children and young people accessing the service

In total across all returns, 17,621 children and young people were recorded as having accessed counselling services between July 2023 to March 2024.

There were more girls (61%) than boys (36%) recorded as accessing counselling provisions. 3% of young people who accessed counselling services did not identify as male/female or preferred not to specify their gender. This remains much the same split as with previous years.

For those local authorities who provided a breakdown of pupils by year group, the two year groups with the highest total number of service users were S2 and S3.

Number of school counsellors

Authorities reported 576 school counsellors in post during this period. It is important to note that this figure relates to counsellor numbers rather than FTE. Between July 2023 and March 2024, authorities reported a total of 6,687 hours of counselling being provided per week across the country.

A couple of authorities highlighted they are working at capacity throughout the year and that the service is in high demand.

Outcomes

The overall picture on improving children and young people’s outcomes is positive. The returns from local authorities recognise that there are a number of pupils who are currently continuing to access counselling, and have not yet completed an evaluation. However, recognising this, it is clear that 8,636 children and young people have improved outcomes in this reporting period as a result of receiving counselling.

Referrals

The majority of recorded referrals came from school staff.

Local authorities were also asked about onward referrals which were split between CAMHS, Child Protection and other services.

The onward referrals to ‘other services’ reflected the different services which are available in local authority areas, for example third sector organisations. Children and young people could also be referred on to other health services, for example GPs.

Reasons presented by children and young people

There was wide variation across local authorities on the reasons reported by children and young people accessing counselling services. Officials provided authorities with ten suggested categories of reasons why children and young people may present. The following table shows the total number of children and young people who presented with those reasons.

Local authorities were invited to offer further categories based on their own locality needs. A total of 81 other reasons were reported, including family issues, relationships, self-esteem, anger, bullying and identity. A full list is included below. This again confirms that young people are dealing with a wide range of concerns within their lives and continues to demonstrate the need for young people to be able to access support quickly, and effectively for their mental health and wellbeing.

The following is a combined list of further reasons reported by local authorities, for which children and young people sought the support of counselling services.