• 76% schools have seen an increase in students seeking counselling over the past year.
• Schools are struggling to meet the needs and believe many more students would benefit from counselling services.
• Barnardos’ helpline What’s Up is increasingly plugging a gap, but more can be done to support schools.
• Embedding services such as What’s Up alongside school-based counselling and social work can ease pressure on schools, provide a safe place for children to be heard, and support learning outcomes and long-term wellbeing.

A Barnardos Aotearoa schools survey has found that more tamariki and rangatahi are courageously seeking help for their mental health and wellbeing – but support is failing to keep up despite schools’ best efforts.

The What’s Up with Wellbeing? Schools Survey 2025, supported by OfficeMax and gathering responses from schools across the country, shows 76% of schools have seen an increase in students asking for counselling over the past 12 months – up from 60% in 2023. Yet more than half say the services available don’t meet students’ needs, with many counsellors only on site one or two days a week, and some schools having none at all.

“Schools are working incredibly hard to support tamariki and rangatahi,” says Matt Reid, Barnardos Aotearoa Chief Executive. “But the demand and the need are outstripping the resources available. This isn’t about schools not trying — it’s about the scale of need, the complexity of the issues children are facing, and the challenges our current system has to fully support those needs.”

The survey also shows that while many schools report fewer than one in five students accessing counselling, most believe far more would benefit – closer to four or five students out of every ten.

“We are seeing more and more children that are being exposed to the stresses and challenges faced by their parents,” explains a primary school principal who reported a significant rise in counselling demand.

“Concerns about food security, friendship and relationships, worries about parents’ jobs and the impact that will have on them. We’re also dealing with children operating at heightened levels of stress and anxiety because of what they’re experiencing at home.

“Often when we get to the point of a child needing counselling it is urgent — waiting for availability is our biggest concern.”

Almost 40% of schools already refer students to Barnardos’ What’s Up counselling service, while a further 60% are open to encouraging its use.

“What’s Up is already helping more than 12,000 children each year,” says Matt Reid. “We want to work alongside schools to plug the gap they can’t always meet and ensure students get timely counselling support – not to replace what they do, but to complement it.”

Evidence shows that when children’s mental health needs are addressed promptly, they are better able to concentrate, engage with learning, and build positive relationships with peers and teachers. Supporting wellbeing in the classroom or embedding services such as What’s Up lays the foundation for improved academic outcomes, social development, and long-term life opportunities – an approach already underway with Life Education Trust.

“Through our partnership with Life Education Trust, Harold the Giraffe is helping tamariki learn about What’s Up,” says Reid. “Harold’s conversations with children show that it’s okay to talk about worries and reach out for support — helping to make asking for help feel normal and safe.”

Barnardos is ready to build on partnerships like this to reach even more children. With additional support from government, businesses, and generous New Zealanders, we can expand our counselling team, place social workers in schools, scale up the awareness of our helpline, and make sure every tamaiti and rangatahi who needs help is able to get it quickly.

About Barnardos Aotearoa

Barnardos Aotearoa exists because every tamaiti (child) deserves a chance to thrive, no matter their circumstances. For too many families in Aotearoa, hardship creates barriers that make it harder for children to have the futures they deserve - poverty, housing instability, family harm, intergenerational trauma, and barriers to accessing education and essential services.

Barnardos works to break down those barriers, provides wraparound support, and ensures every child gets the best possible start in life.

Every year, we work with more than 30,000 tamariki, rangatahi and whānau across the motu. Our work spans across early learning, social and community services, care services, counselling, and advocacy, ensuring that tamariki and whānau receive the right support, at the right time.

What’s Up is part of the continuum of services that Barnardos provides and is New Zealand’s only national children’s helpline for children aged 5 to 19.. In 2014, What’s Up was the first helpline in Aotearoa to introduce a web chat service for tamariki and rangatahi and in January 2021, Kidsline joined the What’s Up whānau, making it the only children and teens helpline in Aotearoa. In 2022, What’s Up celebrated 21 years of existence, marking close to 1.6 million answered calls and over 29,000 answered chats.ImpactLab’s recent Good Measure Report found that for every dollar invested in What’s Up service, it delivered two dollars of social value to New Zealand.

Key findings – What’s Up with wellbeing? Barnardos Schools Survey 2025

• 76% reported an increase in students seeking counselling over the past year (up from 60% in 2023).
• While fewer than 20% of students typically access counselling, half of schools estimate 20–40% would benefit and even one third of schools believe more than 50% of their students would benefit from counselling.
• 17% of schools have no counselling services; 55% have an on-site counsellor (often only 1–2 days/week).
• 55% of schools offering counselling services say existing services don’t sufficiently meet their students’ needs (compared to 38% in 2023).
• Main drivers of demand: financial pressures, unstable home environments, bullying and social media, trauma from events, worries about the future, reduced stigma and rising neurodiversity.
• Barriers identified by schools include lack of funding, staffing shortages, long waitlists, counsellor burnout, stigma or hesitancy among students, and a shortage of culturally inclusive and age-appropriate support — especially in primary schools.
• Voices from schools:
  • “Something needs to change” — schools stressed the growing and diverse needs of tamariki and rangatahi, calling for counselling that is culturally responsive and offers different modes (e.g., group sessions).
  • Many emphasised the importance of trusting, consistent counsellor relationships and access to face-to-face support.
  • Schools highlighted that resources and availability remain the top priority (18% of responses), particularly for primary students where early intervention is crucial.
  • More awareness and psychoeducation for students, parents, and sector leaders is needed to normalise help-seeking and champion counselling benefits.
• Awareness of external free services grew to 74% (from 51% in 2023).
• Increase trust in What’s Up helpline: 28% noted they were familiar with What’s Up (compared to 8% in 2023), while almost 30% of schools already use What’s Up (up from 20% in 2023), with a further 59% open to encouraging students to use it.

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