CHIPPENHAM NEWS: SOARING depression rates among Chippenham schoolchildren as young as 10 are causing waiting lists for a counselling service to spiral.

Counsellors at Relate Mid Wiltshire are being crippled by the number of appointments for the service introduced in Chippenham four years ago.

Manager Pam Walden Woods said 10 hours a week in the town's three secondary schools was simply not enough for youngsters seeking help for self-harm, bereavement, bullying, exam pressure and shattered family lives.

She said: "Young people in Chippenham have got emotional problems which cause them serious distress. They need professional counselling as a way to release their feelings.

"Three hours at a secondary school is a short space of time. Counsellors are under an enormous amount of pressure and are finding themselves working out of hours to deal with emergencies."

It costs Relate £20,000 a year to pay for the services in Chippenham and without extra cash they will be unable to provide more support.

Earlier this year, funding problems saw Relate counselling sessions reduced in Trowbridge secondary schools from 12 hours a week to just four, and there is no immediate plans to up them.

Mrs Walden Woods said: "The Borough Lands Charity supplies match funding, and schools supply funding from their budget which they can ill afford but it's a service they value.

"We would be able to provide more hours if we had extra funding."

Deputy headteacher Wayne Howells, of Hardenhuish School, said about five pupils use the service every week.

He said: "There is not a week that goes by when she (the counsellor) does not have any kids to see.

"There is increasing pressure on schools to improve performance and results and we spend more and more of our time making sure pupils progress.

"The flip side of this is that we are spending a smaller amount of time talking to pupils about individual problems so it's important to have somebody on hand like Relate to help them.

"The fact that we keep on renewing the service every year shows how valuable it is."

Deputy headteacher Tim Perry, of Abbeyfield School, said the service offered vital independent advice.

"I am quite sure demand would expand if counsellors had more time in the school," he said.

Former Chippenham mayor Desna Allen will present £2,000 to the Trowbridge-based charity next week to help sustain the service in the town. The cash was raised during her year in office.