Closed petition Require all secondary schools and colleges to have a full-time counsellor

Closed on 5 July 2023

We believe the Government's plans to support children and young people's mental health in England are inadequate, and that all secondary schools and colleges should be required to have a full-time counsellor on staff. This is particularly important given rates of mental health issues and suicide.

The UK Gov has committed funding to the NHS Long Term Plan to provide additional support for children and young people by 2023-24, including developing mental health support teams with £79 million for training psychological well-being practitioners. The teams will still only work with around 1/3 of pupils in England by 2023, and are currently only in certain geographical areas.

In a survey by BACP and You Gov (2022), 82% of parents with children aged 4-17 believe counselling/psychotherapy should be freely available to all school children.

We believe not having a dedicated mental health professional in every secondary school academy and FE college in England risks exacerbating mental health issues facing young people.