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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 2 Oct 2003

Vol. 571 No. 3

Ceisteanna – Questions. - Education Welfare Service.

Brendan Howlin

Question:

6 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Education and Science the progress made to date with regard to the operation of the National Educational Welfare Board; the number of education welfare officers now in place; the number expected to be in place by the end of 2003; when he expects all areas of the country to have an education welfare officer in place; if the promised additional staff have been appointed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21506/03]

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 was fully commenced on 5 July 2002. It established the National Educational Welfare Board on a statutory basis as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving.

To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service to provide welfare-focused services to children, families and schools. It appointed an interim chief executive officer in August 2002. Directors of corporate services and educational services, with a further eight head office staff, were appointed earlier this year. Thirty-seven former school attendance officers who were employed under the previous legislation were transferred to the board in July, 2002 in accordance with section 40 of the Act. To date, 25 have accepted, in full, the terms and conditions of the new grade of education welfare officer. The remaining school attendance officers are continuing to carry out the duties which they performed under the previous legislation.

An additional cohort of 36 service delivery staff, including regional managers, senior education welfare officers and education welfare officers, are currently being recruited. Interviews have recently been completed and it is anticipated that all appointees will be in place by the end of the year. The additional cohort will bring the total number of staff in the board to 84 by the end of this year.

The new services are being phased in and my Department has allocated a budget of €5.4 million to the board for 2003 for this purpose. Five regional teams will be established in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and staff will be deployed in areas of greatest disadvantage and in areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme. A service will also be provided in all cases where children have been permanently excluded from education. I have instructed officials of my Department to work with the board to ensure that all opportunities for integrated working between education welfare officers and staff on other educational disadvantage programmes whose work involves a school attendance element are exploited to the maximum.

The board has commenced a round of consultations with schools, teachers, parents and others in regard to its services and has recently established a school implementation group to advise on its working arrangements with schools. A letter giving general information on the service was issued to all schools last February and the board will follow this up with more detailed information shortly.

The National Educational Welfare Board is still hopelessly under-resourced to carry out its statutory duty to address the problem of school drop-outs throughout the country. When does the Minister expect to have education welfare officers in place for every part of the country?

Representatives of school principals told the Joint Committee on Education and Science that they were seriously concerned about the operation of the Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill because they had statutory duties under the Education (Welfare) Act which they could not properly undertake because the resources were not in place. Will the Minister respond to the serious concern expressed by school principals that there is a hiatus in terms of responsibility for children who drop out of school? These are the most vulnerable in our education system.

The legislation is very clear. The National Educational Welfare Board has responsibility for that. The board is moving to place education welfare officers throughout the country. There are centres in Green Street in Dublin and in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. Those offices will be located in premises that are in the process of becoming health board regional offices. A staff of 45 will be based in Dublin to serve Dublin, north Leinster, Ulster and south Leinster, 15 will be based in Cork, eight in Galway, three in Limerick and two in Waterford.

Other people who are working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds will continue their work and the National Educational Welfare Board should work closely with them. There are 369 home-school liaison co-ordinators and these are based almost exclusively in disadvantaged areas. There are 82 co-ordinators in the school completion programme and 40 visiting teachers for Travellers. These all deal with disadvantage. We recently organised a meeting between Department officials, the NEWB and representatives of these groups to ensure that they work closely together until the board is fully in place.

The Minister's list is all very well but no one has statutory responsibility for children who are absent from school except those employed by the National Educational Welfare Board. The Minister mentioned that the staff in Dublin will serve north Leinster and south Leinster but there is no service currently.

Will the Minister comment on the statement by the chief executive of the board, "We are not in a position to follow up on reports of student absences in areas where staff are not yet appointed." The Garda has had no role in school attendance since July 2002. What is a school principal to do in any of the 21 counties where there is no service?

I outlined where the staff were based and the areas they are covering. At the start of the roll-out staff will not be available in every county but every county is covered. The National Educational Welfare Board has statutory responsibility in this area.

It has not got the resources.

It has the statutory responsibility and resources will be made available as expeditiously as possible.

In the meantime 12 year olds are dropping out of school.

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