Latest news with #HearingYou
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Funding for counselling faces crisis
A crucial Clutha counselling service is facing a funding crisis and community advocates and educators are urgently seeking new support. Hearing You is a mobile, professional counselling service for school children aged 5 to 13, many of whom face complex issues such as anxiety, social challenges, family trauma and even self-harm. It circulates through 11 district schools and is set to lose its core funding in less than a year. Launched in 2021 as a post-Covid-19 initiative to address rising levels of anxiety and emotional distress among schoolchildren, Hearing You replaced the Chat Bus service to quickly become an essential part of student wellbeing in the region. At present, schools receive a half-day to a full day of counselling per fortnight, an amount stakeholders say is already far from sufficient, given the demand. But Hearing You is supported under a collaborative educational network called Kahui Ako, a model to be phased out as the government reallocates $680 million towards Learning Support initiatives. While the new investments are aimed at helping children in the classroom with learning needs including neurodiversity issues, they do not include dedicated funding for counselling services like Hearing You. Stakeholders wanted to highlight Clutha businesses, organisations and individuals who have stepped up to help provide resources from vehicles to sponsorship and reiterate their gratitude. But with Kahui Ako to be fully disestablished by January 2026, schools and supporters were already working to secure future funding for counsellors' wages, fuel, insurance and other costs. Counsellors are at present sourced through Catholic Social Services Dunedin, which also provides the necessary supervision and training. "It's really challenging for parents to get their children into town to see a counsellor," Balclutha Primary School principal Vicki Neave said. "They have the counsellor go to their schools. It makes it so much more accessible and it breaks down that geographical barrier." "Hearing You really does work and it improves school attendance levels because students are coming to school to see the counsellor and just knowing they have someone coming they can safely talk to is enough to keep some of them hanging in there." The service's backers are working to create a sustainable future model by demonstrating and pooling community support as they seek out funding in hopes of not just maintaining, but expanding the provision. Without swift and secure funding solutions, a service many now see as indispensable could soon be lost — leaving some of Clutha's most vulnerable without vital support.
Otago Daily Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Lack of consultation over Kahui Ako upsets principals
Dunedin principals are disappointed about the lack of consultation as evidence emerges showing a $130 million teacher support scheme will be scrapped. Last month, a leaked report from the Ministry of Education revealed the future of the Kahui Ako programme, created by a National-led government in 2014 to reduce competition and improve student achievement, is in doubt. This week, two images of an April 10 document obtained by the Labour Party and sighted by RNZ said Kāhui Ako was "set to be disestablished, effective from Budget 2025". Dunedin Catholic Schools Kāhui Ako co-leaders Kate Nicholson and Jo Stanley said the lack of consultation with educators from the ministry showed the move was not robust decision making. They had seen nothing that showed the ministry had gathered, collated and analysed data from the Kāhui Ako programme, yet there were independent reports that showed successes. "It appears these are being ignored," Mrs Nicholson said. She said the Catholic schools Kāhui was successful and high functioning. It was able to pool resources and expertise for professional development, support for migrant students, wellbeing, progress and achievement, and the Hearing You counselling service. "None of these would have happened without our schools working together with time and resource provided." There were many teachers in Kāhui Ako roles who had no communication other than the recent leak that revealed their roles might soon disappear. "This is stressful for many of them. It has been a career pathway that is now being taken away. "It is a real shame that something as important as Learning Support relies on robbing Peter to pay Paul." St Clair School principal Jen Rogers, who was not a part of a Kāhui, said there was a weariness among principals of why it had to be this or that in the education sector. "Surely the education of our kids should be a high priority, not a balancing of the budget." The principals she had spoken to "are just a bit over it". "We're a bit weary and we're a bit tired of being bashed." While there had been mention the money saved from the programme would go towards learning support co-ordinators for schools, Ms Rogers said they should not come at the cost of another programme. She thought Education Minister Erica Stanford was talking to a few people who were influencing her decisions and doing extremely little consultation with educators.
