About this service…
Our school counselling service collaborates with partner schools to provide a safe and ethical counselling service to both primary and secondary aged children. It sits within our main adult service providing our qualified Children and Young People’s counsellors with access to clinical software, clinical line management by an experienced school lead, safeguarding training and support from our DSL’s.Currently England is the only country in the UK not to have government funded school counselling. The experience and knowledge we have gained from working with parents over the years has shown the necessity for early intervention to support better outcomes for families and children. Our latest data reports that 77% of parents that accessed our adult counselling service shared that their children were struggling emotionally, had a mental health diagnosis, were accessing CAMHS or waiting for an assessment to access services.
In response to this we developed our children and young people’s service following a successful pilot in 2022.
Feedback from students following counselling with us:
“Counselling was a good experience, which helped me to make personal changes. It helped me to understand myself better and to think about my future.”
“I liked that there was no power imbalance. I learned more about how I think and how I work. I learned more about dealing with my emotions in a way I found useful.”
“I now know that it’s ok to be angry, and to tell someone about this. I feel heard.”
“A safe space to just talk and breathe for a minute.”
“Counselling has helped me to be more confident, make personal changes, deal with things better, it’s helped with relationships and knowing when to walk away, understand myself better by talking and I realised how much I have to cope with.”
Quotes/research on child/young people counselling;
A YouGov and BACP survey (Public Perceptions Survey, 2023) showed that 82% of parents with children aged 4 to 17 believe counselling or psychotherapy should be freely available to all school children, throughout all schools.
A recent study found school staff felt counselling had a positive impact, such as improving mood, openness, coping and resilience skills, for most students O’Donnell, J., Sumner, A. L., Smith, S., Eilenberg, J., Duncan, C., & Cooper, M. (2024). School staff perceptions of the impact of school counselling on young people, the school and integration into the school system. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 00, 1–12
“Counselling provision eases the growing strain on school staff and allows them to concentrate on teaching and the many other activities which make up the already jam-packed school day.” Jo Holmes, BACP 2022
School counsellors can ease the burden on teaching staff. Available athttps://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2022/11-march-school-counsellors-can-ease-the-burden-on-teaching-staff/
(Accessed: 21/02/2025)
“School counselling provides vital support for children and young people. Our research shows that it can bring about significant improvements in mental wellbeing.” Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Roehampton
https://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2022/11-march-school-counsellors-can-ease-the-burden-on-teaching-staff/
(Accessed: 21/02/2025)
MHISC Early Support, Wellbeing Programme
The Parenting Project is dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people in Warwickshire and delivers the MHISC Early Support, Wellbeing Programme, consisting of one-to-one counselling for children within primary and secondary school settings.
The aim of the programme is to build the self-esteem, confidence and resilience of children and young people to improve everyday experiences of school and home life.
Our one-to-one counselling sessions give children time with an experienced and qualified counsellor who will listen without judgement and in confidence. We deliver 13 sessions (including an assessment) which are weekly, during term time and in-person within the school setting.
