According to a recent study, for the charity Place2Be by Pro Bono Economics, for every £1 invested in the mental health of children and young people a return of £6 could be seen for society as a whole. Place2Be asked Pro Bono Economics to assess the value for money of its one-to-one counselling service in primary schools.
The analysis of the counselling scheme in 2016/17 showed that:
- Providing counselling services in primary school could lead to improved outcomes in the form of reduced rates of truancy, exclusion, smoking, depression, and crime, and also higher rates of employment and wages.
- Every £1 invested in the service in 2016/17 results in benefits of £6.20 in terms of improved long-term outcomes.
- The estimated benefit of counselling is £25.9m for all the children who received counselling in 2016/17 compared to a cost of £4.2m for the service.
- The potential benefit per child from counselling is just over £5,700 per child, including a saving of over £2,000 per child for government.
You can read more here on the Place2Be website or here on the Pro Bono Economics website about this story.
The full report can be downloaded here:
Economic evaluation of Place2Be’s Counselling Service in Primary Schools
