Counsellors rejected from school-based jobs due to incorrect qualifications

The NT government does not consider university-accredited counsellors fit for school-based roles – with an interstate counselling body urging the NT to recognise the professionals and get them into schools.

Professionals who have studied for three years to become a counsellor are not fit to care for students’ mental health according to the NT government.

The NT Education Department currently employs just 30 school-based counsellors but a Bachelor of Counselling is not enough for an applicant to be considered for the in-demand job.

“Qualifications for school counsellors in NT – as approved through the OCPE Qualifications Framework – state a school counsellor must have a degree in social work or psychology that provides registration as a provisional or registered psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or eligibility as a social worker with the Australian Association of Social Workers,” a Department spokeswoman said,

Australian Counselling Association chief executive Jodie McKenzie said Victoria was the only jurisdiction in the country that allowed those in her profession to be school counsellors.

Ms McKenzie said it was unclear why counsellors were excluded from school-based environments.

In the wake of a coronial inquiry into the suicide death of a 13-year-old girl – and subsequent investigation into the adequacy of school-based mental health practices in the NT – Ms McKenzie said it was important to be “making sure that counsellors are eligible to be school counsellors”.

Ms McKenzie said the Victorian government amended its Mental Health and Wellbeing Act in 2023 to recognise professionals with a Bachelor or Master of Counselling as mental health practitioners.

She urged the NT – and other jurisdictions – to follow the southern state’s lead.

“Some states claim to be placing a mental health practitioner in every school in 2024 but I can’t see how this will be achieved while their current eligibility excludes counsellors,” Ms McKenzie said.

“(Victorian counsellors) are now able to work alongside psychologists and social workers, mental health nurses and occupational therapists, they are now recognised as the fifth discipline.”

Ms McKenzie said Victorian counsellors were now eligible to work as mental health practitioners in schools thanks to the “breakthrough” change.

Originally published as Counsellors rejected from school-based jobs due to incorrect qualifications