Despite the potential of school counselling in supporting young peoples’ mental health and development, its accessibility and effectiveness can vary widely and is influenced by several factors, including the support of school leaders, who play a critical role in shaping counselling programs. Despite their influence, school leaders’ perspectives remain underexplored, particularly in diverse cultural and organizational contexts. We investigated international school leaders’ perceptions of school counselling and their role in the provision of effective counselling services in Hong Kong. Our findings suggest that school leaders actively shape counselling effectiveness through their strategic action by intentionally making it central to school life, facilitating effective collaboration between counsellors and other stakeholders, and mitigating structural and cultural barriers. We propose a conceptual model, Leadership-driven Integration of School Counselling (LDISC), made up of underlying mechanisms that influence counselling effectiveness.