Mental Health Funding for Scottish Universities and Colleges: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much funding has the Scottish Government allocated towards mental health counsellors at Scottish colleges and universities in the last five years?
2. In 2023, The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Graeme Dey, allocated a one-off payment of 3.21 million pounds to Scottish universities for mental health and wellbeing support for the academic year 23/24. Will the Scottish Government fund mental health and wellbeing support in the form of mental health counsellors at Scottish colleges and universities in the academic year of 24/25?
3. If yes, how much is the Scottish Government going to grant Scottish colleges and universities for mental health counsellors?
4. In July 2023, the funding for an additional 80 mental health counsellors at Scottish universities and colleges was set to conclude. What is the reason behind the Scottish Government not extending this scheme beyond 2023 (excluding the one-off payment made later last year)?
5. Any correspondence (letters, messages, emails, meeting minutes) from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Graeme Dey, which discusses cutting government funding for mental health counsellors at Scottish universities and colleges, between the years 2021 and 2024.
6. Similarly, any correspondence (letters, messages, emails, meeting minutes) from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Shona Robison, which discusses cutting government funding for mental health counsellors at Scottish universities and colleges, between the years 2023 and 2024.
7. What is the number of students at Scottish universities visiting the mental health counsellors at their respective universities between the years of 2019 and 2024? Could you please provide the number of students for each university?

Response

The answers to your questions are as follows:

Question 1

Between Academic Years 2019/20 and 2022/23, the Scottish Government invested £15.749 million in support of its 2018 Programme for Government commitment to ‘provide more than 80 additional counsellors in Further and Higher Education over the next four years with an investment of around £20 million’ (Programme for Government 2018, page 65). These Academic Year Annual investments, were disbursed through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to institutions and are as undernoted:

• 2019/20 = £3.645 million. Accompanying guidance and allocations can be accessed here: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/sfcan172019/
• 2020/21 = £3.645 million. Accompanying guidance and allocations can be accessed here: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/sfcan162020/
• 2021/22 = £4.229 million. Accompanying guidance and allocations can be accessed here: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/sfcan252021/
• 2022/23 = £4.23 million. Accompanying guidance and allocations can be accessed here: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/sfcan012023/

Total = £15.749 million

In 2023/24, the Scottish Government announced an additional, one off, one-year Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Fund to support institutions transition from the previous funding which focussed on supporting additional counsellor provisions, to a sustainable approach to support student mental health. This resource of £3.21 million was disbursed to institutions through the SFC. Accompanying guidance and allocations can be accessed here: https://www.sfc.ac.uk/sfcan182023/

Question 2

Going forward actions will be framed by the Student Mental Health Action Plan, which is currently being consulted upon through the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Work Group.

While there is no discrete, separate funding for institutions associated with the Plan, it recognises the critical importance of early intervention and prevention, ensuring effective access to a diverse range of community-based clinical and non-clinical services, and providing timely clinical acute care for those who require it. It also recognises the significant investment already made in local services by the Scottish Government, sets out our expectations for institutions on supporting student mental health and wellbeing, and how Scottish Government will work with them and the wider public sector.

Question 3

As above.

Question 4

Ministers have fully met the Programme for Government commitment to support colleges and universities to introduce more than 80 extra counsellors to support their students’ mental health with an investment of almost £16 million over four years since 2019/20. The commitment concluded at the end of the 2022/23 Academic Year. The Student Mental Health Action Plan will set out the framework for future action in this area.

Question 5

Mr Graeme Dey was appointed Minister for Higher and Further Education in March 2023. Over the duration of the four year Programme for Government commitment (2019/20 to 2022/23), respective Ministers – Mr Richard Lochhead, Mr Jamie Hepburn, and Mr Graeme Dey - received advice from officials regarding the Academic Year resources to support it. These are set out in our answer to your first question. The commitment to additional counsellor funding was met in full and has concluded.

In the spirit of a presumption in favour of disclosure, we have released a submission to the Minister for Higher and Further Education, Mr Graeme Dey, dated 6 April 2023 in relation to funding for the final year of the commitment. This has been redacted in terms of Section 30 (b) (i) of FOISA – free and frank provision of advice and Section 38 (1) (b) - the release of personal information.

You may wish to submit a further FOI to request correspondence from previous Ministers (Mr Richard Lochhead, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, 4 September 2018 - 19 May 2021; and Mr Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training, 19 May 2021 - 29 March 2023). Separate to this, in AY 2023/24, the Scottish Government announced an additional, one off, one-year Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Fund (£3.21 million). This fund was not a continuation of the commitment with regard to support for counsellor provision but rather to support institutions’ transition from the previous funding which focussed on supporting additional counsellor provisions, to a sustainable approach to support student mental health.

Question 6

We searched our records using the terms of your question which resulted in two documents. Both of these documents were out of scope. Therefore, in terms of 17(1) of the Act information is not held by the Scottish Government.

Question 7

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. We only have information for 2019/20 and 2020/21 and this is provided below:

Students Accessing Internal Counsellors:
AY 19-20- 13,838
AY 20-21- 15,524
Increase- 1,686

Students Accessing External Counsellors:
AY 19-20- 255
AY 20-21- 527
Increase- 272

You may wish to contact the Scottish Funding Council at enquiries@sfc.ac.uk who may be able to help you further.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400395428 - Information Released - Annex

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