“Just talk to us”: Exploring the lived experiences of young people who engage with a school-based counselling service, and the views of pastoral staff

Rates of mental health (MH) needs among children and young people in England have markedly increased in recent years (Newlove-Delgado et al., 2022, 2023). In this context, schools are increasingly recognised as key sites for MH support. Evidence indicates that school-based counselling (SBC) can offer accessible, timely and effective intervention by providing young people with a confidential space within their everyday environment (Cooper, 2013; Cooper et al., 2021). Pastoral care, meanwhile, is a longstanding component of UK secondary schools, encompassing staff roles focused on pupils’ wellbeing beyond academic attainment (Calvert, 2009; Marland, 1974). However, pastoral responsibilities are often ill-defined, with staff reporting tensions between behavioural, academic and welfare expectations, contributing to role ambiguity and strain (Flint, 2017; O’Toole & Soan, 2021). This study explored how MH support is experienced and enacted within mainstream secondary schools in England by examining the perspectives of young people accessing SBC and the reflections of pastoral staff, using a two-phase sequential exploratory design. Phase 1 involved semi-structured interviews with five young people currently accessing SBC, analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Six group experiential themes were identified: ‘support from staff’, ‘raising awareness of mental health’, ‘ease of accessing support’, ‘peer influence’, ‘the counselling process’, and ‘the counsellor’s contribution’. In Phase 2, semi-structured interviews using anonymised pupil profiles from Phase 1 as discussion provokers were carried out with eight pastoral staff. Reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes describing the pastoral role – ‘intermediaries’, ‘reactive’, and ‘offering bespoke support’; and two themes illustrating facilitators and barriers to MH support: ‘school ethos’ and ‘a broken system’. Findings indicate that young people experience SBC as a meaningful and distinct form of support, and that emotionally attuned relationships with trusted adults underpin help-seeking. Schools’ capacity to provide MH support is shaped by systemic factors, including role ambiguity, limited resources, and the positioning of wellbeing within school ethos. However, a central contradiction emerged: relational practice is essential to effective support yet it is structurally undervalued within school systems. Implications include protecting the distinctiveness of pastoral roles through clearer boundaries and workload management; providing supervision to staff to address the emotional demands of their role; ensuring confidential spaces for targeted MH interventions; and operationalising confidentiality and safeguarding in ways that support safe disclosure. At a systemic level, the study supports statutory SBC in England within an enhanced MHST+ model to address the ‘missing middle’ of unmet need (BACP, 2025; McGorry, 2022).<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Joe Carswell (21041492)

• school-based counselling
• counselling
• mental health
• pastoral care
• pastoral staff
• targeted mental health support
• IPA
• Interpretive phenomenological analysis
• school mental health support
• united kingdom
• secondary schools

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-09-23

Identifier

10779/exe.31804240.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31804240