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.