Ms Lisa Molloy:

I am CEO of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, IACP. I thank the Chair and members for extending the invitation to participate in this roundtable discussion. I am honoured to be here today, alongside representatives from the HSE national mental health services, Jigsaw, SpunOut, PSI, ICP and the ISPCC.

The IACP represents more than 5,000 members in communities all over the country and is the largest counselling and psychotherapy association in Ireland. The IACP has called for the introduction of access to school counselling and psychotherapeutic supports for many years and we were delighted with the news of the allocation of €5 million for an in-school counselling pilot for primary schools. It is a great start.

School-based counselling programmes are established in over 60 countries worldwide and are mandatory in 40 of them. They have been operating in second level education very effectively in the UK for many years. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, our counterpart in the UK, has successfully collaborated with the UK Government in establishing school-based counselling in second level schools across the UK. Following the success of school-based counselling at second level, there is now a pilot under way in Northern Ireland, Healthy Happy Minds. It was launched in November 2021, with funding of £5 million, and was originally scheduled to run for a period of six months but has now been extended to March 2023. The evaluation report of the pilot will provide invaluable learning to the Government in determining the model for the primary school pilot here.

The bottom line is that having timely access to counselling and psychotherapeutic supports through professionally qualified counsellors and psychotherapists in schools has proven to be highly effective. Growing support for this was clearly captured in our latest nationally representative general public survey. The survey was conducted by Behaviour & Attitudes and commissioned by the IACP. It was carried out in April and May 2022 and has produced some very timely top line results, including a finding that 93% of Irish adults think counselling and psychotherapy should be made available for children and young people through schools. This is a 5% increase on the already high level of pre-pandemic support for this, which was 80% in 2019.

Growing international evidence for the benefits of school-based counselling highlights accessibility, destigmatisation and support for children, teachers, parents and caregivers. A study of more than 1,200 primary school principals carried out in 2017 by St. Patrick's mental health services in DCU offers robust results for consideration. It found a high level of interest expressed by school principals in having access to school-based counselling, in particular individual counselling and psychotherapy for children, as well as consultation for staff.

I have seen these findings borne out in the presentations by several school principals who recently appeared before the committee.

We know from the most recent large-scale research carried out in the UK, a study led by the University of Roehampton and published in The Lancet: Child & Adolescent Healthjournal in 2021, that school-based counselling is effective and should be considered as a viable treatment option for children suffering from mental health issues. This study found there were large increases in the levels of self-esteem of pupils, as well as large increases in their achievement of personal goals. It also found that parents and caregivers feel school counselling can play an important role in improving young people’s self-confidence, happiness, sense of self, relationships and academic performance.

The IACP believes intervention is critical and access to counselling and psychotherapeutic services through schools, as research indicates, is highly successful and with positive outcomes not only for children but also for the wider community. We therefore urge the Government to establish access to counselling and psychotherapy in primary and second level schools. This will ensure that children and young people requiring mental health support can access this in a timely and seamless way via the school setting.

The IACP is here to offer its expertise and to assist in the establishment of school counselling and psychotherapeutic supports that are evidence-based and informed. I thank the members of the committee for their time and attention. I am happy to answer questions.