We’re urging the next Scottish government to adopt policies that promote and enhance mental health and wellbeing, which utilises the skills, expertise and capacity of the counselling and psychotherapy workforce.
Our members across Scotland could make a greater contribution to help address gaps in the mental health system if investment was available to unlock their capacity. You can help by reading our manifesto asks and then writing to all candidates standing for election in your constituency to ask them to support our campaign.
Our manifesto and key asks
Download our manifesto to read all our asks in full.
What we're asking of the next Scottish Government:
Use the counselling workforce to strengthen NHS provision
- Invest to build the mental health workforce for the future, including providing dedicated funding for training pathways for therapists in NHS Scotland, in recognition of the role of counsellors and psychotherapists as a core part of Scotland’s mental health workforce
- Work with us to pilot an expansion of the psychological therapies model. Which will learn from best practice from the NHS across the UK to provide counselling for depression within an enhanced offer to reduce waiting times
Support Scotland’s third sector counselling services to further enhance mental health outcomes for all
- Third sector providers, including counselling services, must be recognised as core providers of mental health support services. They should be offered sustainable multi-year contracts, nationally and through local health board provision, receiving parity of funding and esteem with statutory services
- Continuation of the Communities, Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund as well as the establishment of a new Improving Scotland’s Mental Health Fund to provide a strategic focus across the public and voluntary sectors on innovative prevention approaches
Strengthen the school counselling offer in Scotland
- To sustain the success of school-based counselling, ongoing funding should reflect the increased costs we’ve seen during the cost-of-living crisis with budgets revised in line with inflation. Without this investment, the existing programme risks instability, impacting continuity of care and staff retention
- Support the development of defined quality standards and definitions, set out clearly and consistently, within a shared framework for providers
- Learning from international best practice, extend funded primary school therapeutic and counselling services to all primary school aged children across Scotland initially through a pilot programme
Restore vital mental health support for Scotland’s students
- The Scottish Government should commit to restore funding for counselling across Higher and Further Education settings, in recognition of the growing high levels of unmet need among students in Scotland’s universities and colleges
Ban conversion practices
- Demonstrate leadership to bring forward legislation that protects everyone who is at risk of harm from conversion practices. Any ban must be inclusive, effective, and workable and shouldn’t lead to unintended consequences around therapists’ ability to work with gender and sexually diverse clients
How you can help support our campaign
We’re asking our members in Scotland to join us in advocating for better mental health support across Scotland by writing to your candidate.
We’ve developed a simple template which sends an email to prospective parliamentary candidates in your constituency. This is a huge opportunity to promote the benefits of counselling and psychotherapy to the next Scottish government.
Share your feedback with us
If you do speak to your candidate about counselling and psychotherapy over the election period, send your feedback to us at campaiging@bacp.co.uk