Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2024
304. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Education if she will consider including mental health training for all educators in the school setting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21460/24]
View answerThe area of wellbeing and the promotion of positive mental health is a priority for the Department of Education. The Department of Education’s approach to supporting wellbeing and mental health is set out in its Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice.
The approach in the Wellbeing Policy is founded on research and best international practice in relation to how schools can best support the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. The approach proposed is a whole school and preventative approach which has multiple components that include:
- Providing children and young people with opportunities to build core social and emotional skills and competencies
- Providing children and young people with opportunities to experience supportive relationships within the school setting and to learn through those relationships
- Providing children and young people with opportunities to be part of a school environment and culture that feels both physically and psychologically safe, an environment in which children and young people feel a sense of belonging and connectedness, in which they feel their voice is heard, and they feel supported.
- Schools are encouraged to use a reflective, school self-evaluation approach to identify and prioritise the needs of its own school community in relation to the promotion of wellbeing and mental health, and to respond to meeting those needs.
A dedicated wellbeing portal can be accessed via ‘Wellbeing in Education’ on Gov.ie, bringing together all the wellbeing and mental health supports and resources that have been developed by the Department and the Department’s support services.
My Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary and special schools.
The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:
Psychological support in the event of a Critical Incident
- A Casework Service for individual children where there is a need for intensive consultation and assessment via a NEPS psychologist or through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments (SCPA).
- A school staff Support and Development Service, to build school capability to provide a comprehensive continuum of support in schools and
- Ongoing access to advice and support for schools.
This approach allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent individual cases and, through supporting school staff, to benefit many more children than could be seen individually.
NEPS teams offer training and guidance for teachers in the provision of universal and targeted evidence-informed approaches and early intervention to promote children’s wellbeing, social, emotional and academic development. In NEPS, Support & Development can be delivered nationally by working groups, regionally by teams in different offices, by teams in one office for the region, by local teams to local schools and by a psychologist working with an allocated school. For example, Initiatives such as the Incredible Years Social Emotional learning Programmes and the FRIENDS Resilience Programmes which aim to address anxiety reduction have been welcomed by schools and their impact positively evaluated.
- Incredible Years : The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management training for primary teachers. This involves six days of face-to-face training. 20 training programmes involving 400 teachers are taking place this year.
- FRIENDS Resilience : The evidence-based anxiety prevention and resilience building programme FRIENDS Resilience programmes (‘Fun Friends’, ‘Friends for Life’ and ‘My Friends Youth’) continue to be available to school staff. Over 1000 teachers have been trained each year by NEPS.
- Trauma Informed Practice : Training called ‘Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach, the Stress Factor: Getting the Balance Right’ is delivered to school leaders in acknowledgement of the important role they have in embedding practices in their schools. Also School staff have access to a new eLearning programme on Trauma Informed practice. Over 2,300 teachers have enrolled in this programme over the last 9 months.
At primary level, the Oide Wellbeing team Professional Learning Leaders support schools in the area of wellbeing with a particular focus on the curricular areas of SPHE and PE.
At post primary level, the Oide Wellbeing team currently offers Introduction to JC SPHE Two-Day Professional Learning Experience, which explores pedagogical approaches and resources to support the teaching and learning of this area along with others. Between August 2023 – May 2024 592 teachers availed of this PLE.
Oide offers a Post-Primary Mental Health Full Day Professional Learning Experience. This one-day professional learning experience is tailored for Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle SPHE teachers. This event provides an opportunity to explore various pedagogical approaches and resources for teaching and learning, specifically focusing on the areas of Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health. Between August 2023 – May 2024 96 teachers availed of this PLE.
Every school is required to use the School Self Evaluation (SSE) process to initiate a wellbeing promotion review and development cycle by 2025. Oide has been providing training to schools on the National roll-out and implementation of the Wellbeing Policy Statement & Framework for Practice (WPSFP) on a phased basis over the last 3 years.
In June 2023, The Minister for Education announced an investment of €5 million in piloting a programme of counselling and mental health supports in primary schools in selected counties. This further supports the range of mental health and wellbeing supports already provided by my Department and the excellent work already happening in schools in relation to wellbeing. All of this supplements the mental health supports which are offered by the HSE throughout the country.
The pilot has 2 strands. Strand 1 sees direct counselling supports being provided to primary schools for the first time. The Department of Education has set up county panels of pre-approved private counsellors providing one-to-one counselling in primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, and Tipperary. In total, 733 blocks of counselling have been allocated to schools across the pilot counties, which provides an allocation to 733 children in these counties. To date, 35 counsellors have been recruited across the 7 pilot counties.
Strand 2 involves the introduction of Education Wellbeing Teams to provide enhanced in-school supports for a cluster of primary schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7, and Dublin 16. To date, 15 Education Wellbeing Practitioners have been recruited to the four cluster areas. They have undergone an intensive training programme provided by NEPS and are providing supports in schools. The supports being offered are to pupils, parents, and school staff to support wellbeing and resilience at a whole school level.
On the 8th April 2024 the Department published a tender to procure services to further support wellbeing and mental health in post-primary schools. The tender invites suitable providers to work closely with the Department of Education over a two/three-year period to develop and deliver additional supports to complement existing systems and structures in post-primary schools for wellbeing and mental health.
The focus will be to strengthen supports and resources available to Student Support Teams to enhance the wellbeing and mental health of young people in the school community, with supports developed for students, parents and school staff. It is anticipated that the tender contract will be awarded and work commencing by July. This is a further investment by the Department to support the wellbeing and mental health of young people.
A Student Support Team is a central part of the student support system in a post-primary school. It is the overarching team concerned with the progressing of actions for the welfare and wellbeing of all students, and a mechanism through which many of the existing student supports are co-ordinated and planned. It facilitates the coordination of the valuable work of school departments and teams, such as the Junior Cycle Wellbeing Curricular Planning team, the Special Education Needs (SEN) department, Guidance and pastoral staff and the Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT). School Leadership has a significant role on the school’s Student Support Team. The Student Support Team can also identify and forge relationships with external support services and develop pathways for student onward referrals.
A guide to establishing or reviewing Student Support Teams is available to school staff. NEPS psychologists are available to support all post-primary schools with the establishment or review of their Student Support Team, with local NEPS psychologists working collaboratively with clusters of post-primary schools.
Additionally, an Occupational Health Strategy is in place as a supportive resource for staff and leaders in schools. The aim of the Occupational Health Strategy is to promote the health and wellbeing of employees in the workplace, with a strong focus on prevention. The Occupational Health Strategy comprises the Employee Assistance Service and the Occupational Health Service.
The Employee Assistance Service is provided by Spectrum.life and is a self-referral service where school staff have access to a dedicated free-phone confidential helpline. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Employee Assistance Service provides advice to all school staff on a range of issues including wellbeing, bereavement, conflict and mediation. Where required, short-term counselling is available to all school staff and their family members. The Employee Assistance Service provides support and advice to managers to help them deal with health and wellbeing issues personally and in the workplace. It also provides a series of webinars and presentations to promote wellbeing in schools.
These are the many areas my department has been offering training and supports to educators in schools settings in the areas of mental health and wellbeing.
