BACP has given evidence to the Youth Commission on Mental Health Services in Scotland, stressing the need for qualified counselling provision in the country’s schools, colleges and universities.
The 15-month commission has been set up by the Scottish Government, SAMH and Young Scot to involve discussions, encourage debate and gather evidence.
Steve Mulligan, BACP four nations policy and engagement lead, gave evidence to the commission in Edinburgh this week.
He said: “We used this important opportunity to highlight the need for Scottish Government to establish individual frameworks to underpin the new £80m investment in counselling provision in Scotland's schools, universities and colleges, as announced in the Programme for Government in September.
"BACP has worked with Governments across the UK to develop clear standards to ensure high quality practice, to reinforce public safety and to help avoid a postcode lottery of provision. We are keen to work with Scottish Government to develop a gold standard of provision which learns from the very best counselling practice from across the rest of the UK.”
The youth commission is looking to develop a set of solutions and recommendations from young people to the Scottish Government and other service providers and is expected to report in March 2019. These recommendations will focus on how child and adolescent mental health services can be improved for young people in Scotland, now and in the future.