Guidance counselling service ‘in worst state in history’

Guidance counselling is “on its knees”, with secondary school students missing out on crucial support services as a result, practitioners have warned.

Members of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC) are urging teacher colleagues to support motions at this week’s conferences aimed at strengthening guidance counselling and restoring ring-fenced hours for counsellors.

President of the IGC, Betty McLaughlin, said yesterday that guidance counsellors are “struggling on a daily basis to cope” since the 2012 budget, which reduced the hours provided to students in secondary schools.