Professor Paul Downes:

We are miles from that. It is about getting them into the schools first. I support the argument that the service needs to go into the larger schools first, but on a pilot model the idea the therapists give me is that you do not want to spread yourself too thinly. The therapist needs to be known in the school and seen as a member of the school for relationship-building and trust. Thus, when we spread it over five schools, that is a kind of contracting-in model that is highly questionable. We want them embedded in the schools. The idea I would express is of a phased universalism here. I would add a DEIS angle or an areas-of-higher-poverty angle on this. This is not just an issue of poverty - absolutely not - but we might have some selection of areas based on socioeconomic exclusion as well.