28 January 2005
Local education authorities are being asked to help fund a counselling service for teachers because the government will no longer pay for it.
The Teacher Support Network runs a free 24-hour helpline, staffed by trained counsellors, which takes 17,000 calls a year. It is now asking every LEA in England to make a donation so that it can continue to help staff in schools and colleges.
Network chief executive Patrick Nash said the cash would be a 'worthwhile investment' for authorities, as it would help to promote staff wellbeing and so reduce the greater costs of providing cover for absent teachers. No LEA was being asked to contribute more than £2,000. 'I'm calling on LEAs as employers of teachers to contribute 60p per year for each full-time equivalent teacher to ensure the workforce has access to round-the-clock support, advice and counselling,' Nash added.
The TSN was set up in 1999 and has been funded since then by the Department for Education and Skills, but that was intended only to pump-prime the service.
Stephen Hillier, director of the DfES's school workforce group, has written to LEAs saying that the service is highly valued by the department but must now become self-financing. 'If everyone makes a small annual contribution the financial burden is shared and an invaluable and well-used service can be secured. Without your help it cannot continue in its present form,' his letter states.
The charity needs to raise £250,000 from LEAs and hopes to meet the total by April.
PFjan2005
