It should be noted that most professionals working in psychology and guidance services (Serviços de Psicologia e Orientação - SPO) are psychologists.

Psychology and guidance services

School and career guidance/development is an important part of the educational process. The role of these services is to monitor students’ progress throughout their school career, helping to achieve educational success and psychological well-being and health, both during and after school by developing skills that will be useful in later life.

Educational and vocational guidance/career development are made up of activities and interventions designed to enable students, regardless of age or stage of life, to identify their skills, competences and interests. Doing so helps them make decisions about education, training and employment and to manage their pathway in education, at work and other situations where these skills can be acquired or utilised. 

The Ministry of Education, through Law No 190/1991, 17 May, established psychology and guidance services throughout the school network. These services operate in pre-school establishments and in basic and upper secondary schools with psychologists and in some cases also specialised social service workers.

The psychology and guidance services are a specialised educational support unit in conjunction with the educational community in pre-school establishments and in basic education schools (1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles) that make up the school cluster. These services:

• provide psychological and psycho-pedagogical support, as well as school and career counselling and guidance to students, teachers, parents and child-carers, as well as non-teaching staff.
• help towards developing a network of interpersonal relations within each of the schools that are part of the school cluster, 
• help promoting integrated intervention among the various schools in the cluster, encouraging interaction with the surrounding community.

These services facilitate the development of students’ personal and social identity by encouraging success at school. They monitor students’ school life and make adjustments to the learning-teaching process, while helping design suitable educational solutions. They identify students’ interests and skills, helping construct their life projects while bringing together family, school and the world of educational, cultural and professional activities.

These services provide psychological and educational support, as well as school and career guidance, following a cross curricular approach based on mutual cooperation at school and within the community the school belongs to.

Psychology and guidance services (SPO) have the following responsibilities:

1. to assist with drafting, implementing and developing the school’s structural documents by making an inventory of the educational community’s needs and capabilities; to help plan and apply measures that contribute to defining strategies that provide a wider selection of educational provision and better educational environments; coordinating its activity with other services, such as health, welfare and social security, employment and vocational training, in order to plan suitable intervention measures.
2. to provide psychological and pedagogical support to students, teachers, staff, parents/guardians and other actors in the education process and help to design suitable educational solutions. 
3. to work with other services, school advisory bodies and with other educational professionals at the level of organising and managing curricular and educational activities, adjusting the students’ learning-teaching processes; to help define strategies leading to diverse provision of learning opportunities within the classroom.
4. to provide activities to create awareness about education, career and social opportunities, such as study visits, vocational experiences and traineeships, among others, designed for students, their parents or guardians and other members of the community. In doing so, students will receive help construct their life projects, as well as making the right choices that will influence their future options.

Since 2017, the project "Escola SaudávelMente - Good Practices in Psychological Health and Educational Success" has recognised and distinguished Portuguese schools whose educational policies and practices demonstrate a strong and effective commitment to promoting development, learning and psychological health in the entire educational community, awarding as special seal to schools.

This initiative represents a contribution by the Portuguese Psychologists' Association (OPP) to boost access to quality, equitable and inclusive education for all. This is done by encouraging and disseminating policies and good practices regarding psychological health, well-being and educational success in Portuguese schools, part of the Escola SaudávelMente Campaign. During the first edition (2017-2019), there were 253 applications, and 99 seals awarded. In the second edition (2019-2021), there were 267 applications, and 161 seals awarded. And in the 2022-2024 edition, 474 applications were received and 350 seals were awarded.