This Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re calling for urgent action to invest in counselling and psychotherapy to ensure more people can access support when they need it most.

While our work to campaign for greater funding and recognition of therapy continues all year round, this week’s theme is another opportunity for us to press for long-term investment, improved access and fairer provision of therapy that could make a positive difference in more people’s lives.

Anyone should be able to access therapy when they need it.

We want political commitment, sustainable funding and practical action to make that happen.

Our members have the skills, capacity and expertise to help improve the mental health of the nation – but they’re underutilised by many services and settings.

Here’s a snapshot of some of our key campaigning and policy work, and our priority calls for action.

The NHS

One in four adults experience at least one mental health issue in any year, according to the NHS.

But many people are still waiting too long for therapy on the NHS, they need greater access to a range of therapies, and more counsellors and psychotherapists need to be employed by the NHS to help services meet demand.

The NHS must bring more counsellors and psychotherapists into the workforce so people have greater access to timely, high-quality therapy that meets their needs.

We regularly meet with NHS representatives nationally and locally to press for this, respond to consultations, including the NHS 10-year-plan, and gather data and develop reports to highlight these calls.

Children and young people’s counselling

Some 730,000 children a year fall between the level of support offered by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Mental Health Support Team (MHSTs)

This ‘missing middle’ of children cannot be forgotten – especially as the number of children struggling with their mental health is increasing.

Without better access to school counselling, children are missing out on crucial early intervention that can have a positive impact for years to come.

England still lags behind the other UK nations by not having Government-funded school counselling.

The Government must expand Mental Health Support Teams and fund counselling in every school and college so all children can access the support they need, wherever they live.

We continue to brief and advise MPs on school counselling, meet with partners and other organisations in the education sector and respond to consultations and proposals.

We’re also a member of the Fund the Hubs campaign and work with allies across the mental health sector to advance the proper funding and delivery of Young Futures Hubs across the country. We're working with politicians and civil servants to ensure that counselling and psychotherapy is part of the core offering at these hubs

Supporting education, training and work

In 2024 to 2025, an estimated 964,000 people were impacted by work-related stress, depression or anxiety, resulting in 22.1 million working days lost in Great Britain, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

Work should be secure, supportive, and properly adapted to individual needs. Creating happier, healthier staff benefits employers too.

Counselling and psychotherapy are evidence-based, cost-effective interventions that play a critical role in supporting employment.

The Government must make it easier for businesses of all sizes to invest in counselling and psychotherapy as part of tailored workplace support so people are given the help that’s right for them to thrive at work.

Long-term sickness is now the most common reason for economic inactivity among young people, accounting for around 73% of the increase in youth economic inactivity since 2021. Mental health conditions are the most commonly reported cause, with over 100,000 young people economically inactive due to mental ill.

Young people who are not in education, employment and training need mental health support that is specific to their needs and in places where they’re going for support, such as job centres, or youth hubs.

We’re continuing to speak to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) employers, organisations, and other partners to stress the important role our members have in supporting better mental health at work.

Charities and the third sector

Third sector counselling services have seen a rapid growth in demand for therapy and rising referral rates from NHS, but without accompanying growth in funding. All this is happening while they face increasing overhead costs and reductions in donations.

This is leaving many services under threat and facing closure, and people who rely on these charities’ specialist and diverse support with nowhere to turn for help.

To help ensure third sector organisations continue to provide vital services to those in need, they need longer funding cycles, simpler commissioning processes and more effective referral tracking.

We highlighted these calls in our Bridging the gaps report, and are working with third sector organisations and our members to continue to campaign on their – and their clients’ - behalf. We’re currently carrying out a survey of third sector organisations and working on a follow up report to Bridging the gaps.

Across the UK

Your address within the UK shouldn’t determine your access to mental health support.

Our policy and public affairs work stretches across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

We’ve recently campaigned ahead of the national elections for Scotland and Wales, sharing our manifestos of calls for action with candidates and members. Some 15 of our policy asks were reflected in the Scottish parties’ manifestos, and 14 of our policy priorities were directly reflected in the Welsh parties’ manifestos. We’ll be undertaking similar campaigning for the Northern Ireland Assembly elections in 2027

We’ll continue to campaign and work with members, organisations, commissioners and policy-makers across all four nations to increase access to therapy, to improve funding for counselling services and to expand paid opportunities for members.

Every voice can help

Mental Health Foundation, which runs Mental Health Awareness Week, says action means “advocating for a society that supports mental health at every level. It means workplaces that prioritise wellbeing, communities where everyone feels they belong, and government policies that give people security, dignity, and hope.

“None of us can do that alone, but every voice can help shape the change we need.”

If you’d like to get in touch with our policy team about their work, please email publicaffairs@bacp.co.uk