School Counselling Services

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 12 February 2020.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 1:30, 12 February 2020

I thank you for that answer, and it really is a good investment in the well-being of young people. But there was a report by the Children, Young People and Education Committee in 2018, and it reviewed school-based counselling and found that the service was indeed making a significant contribution to building an emotionally resilient population of young people. But there was one area of concern that was raised by the children, and that was the sense of being stigmatised about accessing the service by having to leave school lessons in order to do so. So, my question, really, is: that having been said, Minister, what actions have been taken since that report to reduce that stigma around school-based counselling so that children and young people continue to access what, for them, is a much needed service?