UHI Perth’s principal has joined calls urging the Scottish Government to intervene and save 80 college mental health counselling jobs at risk of potential redundancy.
The roles, including some at the Crieff Road Campus, have been funded since 2018 and allow students to access help.
The service was put in place even before the pandemic and the cost of living crisis as mental health issues were recognised as having a huge impact on student wellbeing.
Now 21 college principals have written to the Scottish Government to ask for the vital service to be saved as funding is only in place until July.
Dr Margaret Cook, UHI Perth principal, said: “The counselling services funding has been crucial in supporting our students, especially in recognition of the challenges they have faced with Covid - and now the cost of living crisis.
“We are fully supportive of the action taken by the college sector to maintain funding for essential counselling services.”
Funding for counsellors to be based in colleges and universities was launched in 2018 by the First Minister with a funding commitment of up to £20m in a four-year pilot programme, which was extended to five years because of the pandemic.
So far £14.5m has been spent and as a result college principals are asking what the intention is around the £5.5m left that remains.
Allie Scott, co-chair of the College Counselling Network Scotland, said she was worried for college student health and wellbeing going forwards.
“The early interventions and triage support which mental health counsellors offer has helped to keep demand away from the NHS,” she explained.
“We’re not a replacement for the specialised care the NHS provides but we can be the difference between a student completing their course and finding a route out of despair or those who go on to make more troubling decisions which alter their life outcomes, sometimes forever.
“The lack of commitment to continued funding is extremely worrying.
“If the service isn’t funded for the future, and the existing counselling workforce move on to other opportunities, it will be very difficult to reconstruct down the line if funding ever did become available.”
Colleges Scotland has said it has received no assurances from the Scottish Government that the scheme is either to be continued, or ended, after asking for clarity on the future of the scheme nearly two years ago.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Over the last three academic years, we have invested more than £11.5m to introduce almost 90 additional counsellors in colleges and universities - over and above what institutions have already provided.
“Despite a very challenging fiscal environment, we have confirmed a further £2m in this academic year to March 2023, and we are committed to additional funding to cover the entirety of the current academic year. No decision has been taken with regard to funding beyond the end of the current academic year.
“The Scottish government will also deliver a student mental health plan in spring 2023.”
