A Welsh Government review on the impact of school counselling has shown it reduces the need to refer pupils to places like Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

The review, undertaken by Cardiff University, looked at evaluations of school counselling in 29 UK schools (between January 1999 and December 2020).

As well as providing evidence that school counselling reduces the number of children and young people being referred to more intense services, it also showed a positive impact on their wellbeing and mental health.

This follows recent research that found the long-term benefit to the taxpayer of access to counselling in all schools is eight times the cost of the investment.

These findings support our long-standing campaign to fund a registered counsellor in all UK schools. England is the only country in the UK not to have government-funded school counselling.

Emma Davies, chair of the CYPF divisional executive, and Director of The Exchange (Wales) welcomes the report and acknowledges how school-based counselling services have evolved over the years, drawing on collective knowledge and experience:

"Each quarter our services meet to exchange best practices, identify challenges, and discuss potential improvements. This report highlights the positive outcomes regularly shared at the National Local Authority Counselling and Providers meetings, underscoring the effectiveness of these collaborative efforts."

Jo Holmes, our Children and Young People and Families Lead, says: “This report is the first to explicitly say that there’s a reduction in the number of CAMHS referrals following counselling being provided in-school.

“This clearly demonstrates the vital role school and community counselling play in identifying and supporting children and young people within an early help mental health pathway model.

“We already knew that earlier intervention has a greater impact on children and young people’s lives. Now we have evidence that it also alleviates pressure on higher tiered mental health services, which are more costly and mean more time out of school for appointments.

“With the new UK Government’s commitment to providing a mental health professional in every school in England,  we continue to stress our call to fund universal early help counselling interventions across all England’s primary schools, secondary schools, further education colleges and sixth forms.”