Question reference: S5W-32993
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 3 November 2020
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-31767 by John Swinney on 25 September 2020, how many of the school counsellors it committed to are in place; which local authorities have not yet provided access to school-based counselling across all schools, and how many counsellors there are overall.
Answer
The Scottish Government is prioritising the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools. We have continued to fund local authorities with £16 million in this financial year to ensure access to a counsellor is available in every secondary school and have published, for the first time, a single document that highlights all of the resources that schools can utilise to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
The Scottish Government has previously confirmed that every education authority had appropriate plans in place for delivery of this commitment and that almost all authorities having access to counselling services in every secondary school in place in response to the COVID pandemic. On 24 September we wrote to all local authorities to seek information on the number of counsellors currently allocated to schools. We are still awaiting returns from a small number of local authorities and we will make this information available once it has been received.