Ms Sarah Hughes:

One of the key issues is the perception that the wait lists are all year around. There are times, such as at exam time, when the counselling services are busy. Where there is adequate funding, campus counselling services can hire additional sessional service staff because we know that time of year will be busy and can prepare in advance for it. The biggest issue faced by on-campus counselling services is that even when the funding is currently available they cannot hire enough staff because the funding is only provided year on year and nobody wants to take a job that only has a year's contract. Counselling services do not know year on year whether they will have to let staff go or will be able to hire more staff. Counselling staff are also expected to roll out things such as the mental health framework. It comes down to staff asking themselves whether they will roll out a policy or see a student. The key asks that USI always has is that funding on campus be ring-fenced and multi-annual. We are off the globally recommended ratio of counsellors to students by between 500 and 1,000, give or take, with the current funding we receive. We need more funding but we also need to change the model of how it is provided year on year.