School based counselling strategy described as overwhelming success
04 November 2011
An independent evaluation report into school-based counselling has highlighted the positive impact of the service on attainment, attendance and behaviour, leading one academic involved in the evaluation (Professor Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling at Strathclyde University) to describe the strategy as ‘an overwhelming success.’
The Welsh Government (WG) ’s school- based counselling strategy, implemented from April 2008, has been evaluated by a research consortium led by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). The final report was published on November 3rd.
Cllr Peter Fox (Monmouthshire), WLGA Education spokesperson said:
“The findings of this evaluation into school-based counselling are very positive and show high levels of satisfaction with the strategy across all stakeholder groups including local authority leads, teachers and the school counsellors themselves.”
“It is very important for the emotional health and wellbeing of all young people in Wales that they have access to high quality counselling services when they need them. Although it is called the ‘school-based counselling strategy’, the service is also delivered in community settings such as youth clubs and G.P surgeries thereby affording access for young people who are not in education or who are home educated, often those who require the service most. The WLGA welcomes the recommendations made in the report for how to improve the service even further in the future.”
The final report by BACP is available on the following link:
http://wales.gov.uk/about/aboutresearch/social/latestresearch/CounselStrategyReport/?lang=en&ts=4
For more information contact: Lucy Sweet