Thank you for contacting me about the provision of mental health counselling in schools and colleges.
The lockdown measures - which were required to help tackle Coronavirus - have had a considerable impact on many people across Wales, including children and young people. The pandemic has highlighted just how important it is to support mental health, and to ensure that appropriate services are available to help children and young people through this difficult time and beyond.
As I am sure that you will appreciate, education and health in Wales are devolved matters, and so mental health provision in schools and colleges is under the direction of the Welsh Labour-led Government. However, the pace and focus on acting upon the recommendations of the Welsh Parliament’s Children, Young People and Education Committee’s (CYPE) ‘Mind Over Matter’ report have been underwhelming, leaving some children and young people less able to cope with heightened worries about being behind with school work or the health of friends and family. More information about this report and follow-up work that has taken place since its publication can be accessed via the following link: https://business.senedd.wales/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=25377.
I welcome the fact that the Welsh Labour-led Government has provided extra resources to enable additional counselling sessions in schools, which includes an extra £1.25 million of funding to strengthen the delivery of school counselling services to support children and young people’s mental health during the Coronavirus crisis. However, we need to see how this money is spent to ensure that all of it reaches schools to support counselling services - enabling all children and young people who need to support receive it - and that delivers upon the recommendations of the CYPE Committee.
Please be assured that I will pass on your thoughts to my colleague Suzy Davies MS, the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Education and Skills. Suzy has regularly pushed the Welsh Labour-led Government on the importance and urgency of grasping the current issues with mental health provision in schools and colleges in Wales, and the effects of unmet mental health needs on children and young people.
Thank you once again for writing to me.
Mark Isherwood MS/AS
