Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 February 2017
224. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education and Skills the extra supports that are being put into schools to deal with an issue (details supplied); if he has met with the Minister for Health on this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8579/17]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that my Department promotes a comprehensive and whole-school approach in schools to the promotion of well-being and positive mental health focusing on the entire school community, as well as groups and individual young people with identified need. This spans the curriculum in schools, whole-school ethos, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, student support and pastoral care, guidance counselling and the provision of professional development for teachers. It also involves accessing other supports such as educational psychology services. Additionally, schools engage in a wide range of sport and cultural activities which provide an important opportunity for students to experience success and personal growth. The whole staff shares responsibility for general student well-being.
The Well-being in Post Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2013) and Well-being in Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion (2015) provide a Framework for schools to present in an integrated way the existing elements of good practice to promote social and emotional learning, and mental health and direct then to appropriate practice. They provide clear information for schools and for agencies supporting schools on how to address issues of social emotional learning and mental health promotion. The European wide HSE supported, Health Promoting School Process (HSP) is also outlined, and the Well-being Guidelines show how the HSP can be introduced to schools to complement existing good practice. The Guidelines outline how schools support young people through early intervention and prevention, modelled on the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) Continuum of Support tiered approach.
The processes outlined span the curriculum in schools, whole-school ethos, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, student support and pastoral care and the provision of professional development for teachers. It also involves other supports such as educational psychological services and guidance and counselling services, and the interface with other agencies, both nationally and locally. Schools also engage in a wide range of sport and cultural co-curricular activities which provide an important opportunity for students to experience success and personal growth.
Key Messages in the Guidelines:
- Schools play a vital role in providing a protective environment for young people which can counter risk factors.
- Having a whole school approach which fosters important links with the wider school community, and agencies which support schools, is key to successful implementation of the Guidelines
Action Plan for Education 2016 2019
I have published an Action Plan for Education (2016-2019) in which Wellbeing is one of the key goals. The actions relating to well-being and mental health include:
- Delivery of a national programme to support all schools to implement the national Wellbeing in Post Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2013) and Wellbeing in Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion (2015). This will involve collaboration of the HSE and DES support services.
- Introduction of Wellbeing as a subject at Junior Cycle: Guidelines on Wellbeing in Junior Cycle have been developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to support the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015. The guidelines will be introduced to post-primary schools in September this year. The Junior Cycle team are currently planning the support that will be in place for the implementation of the well-being Curriculum.
- Increasing the capacity of NEPS: It is planned to enhance educational psychological service to schools, through the appointment of an additional 10 educational psychologists this year and an additional 65 in total by 2019. The focus of this year's additional support will be on extending the delivery of training to teachers in two specific evidence-informed programmes – the Incredible Years Teacher Programme and the Friends programmes. The Friends programmes when delivered by trained teachers, reduces anxiety and promotes coping, resilience and school-connectedness in children and young people, while the Incredible Years Teacher Programme strengthens the social and emotional competence of primary school children whose teacher has completed the programme.
- Enhancing Guidance Counselling provision at post-primary level: Recent budgets saw improvements in guidance allocation to schools, with Budgets 2016 and 2017 together seeing the allocation of the equivalent of 400 ex-quota guidance posts, following budget measures in 2012 which removed the ex-quota provision for guidance posts (which amounted to some 600 posts). The 400 guidance posts which have now been restored will be allocated separately and transparently and once again
- Responding to Critical Incidents Guidelines and Resource Materials : These guidelines have been revised and re-issued to schools. Support in implementation and development of a Critical Incident Management team will be offered to schools in the 2017/2018 academic year.
Interdepartmental collaboration
At Central Government level the Pathfinder Project: Youth Mental Health has been initiated. This is led by the Department of Health. Finding new ways of tackling policy issues that are not the sole responsibility of any one Government Department or Agency has been prioritised by Government. Youth mental health and suicide prevention is one of three Pathfinder projects under Action 5 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan (2014) and agreed by the Civil Service Management Board. This Pathfinder Youth Mental Health Project is an initiative to innovate and improve whole-of-Government working on cross-cutting policy issues and improve the delivery of shared whole-of-Government projects to strengthen the prioritisation, management and accountability of cross-cutting projects that involve multiple Departments, Offices and Agencies. The project aims to ensure that policies that are not the priority or responsibility of a single body are effectively managed, supported and resourced.
This project focuses on the work of three Departments – DOH, DES, and DCYA – and the HSE. The DES has nominated a representative to work for one day each week with the DOH on this Youth Mental Health Pathfinder project. The Pathfinder will work and report within the parameters of Connecting for Life Irelands Strategy to Reduce Suicide (2015/2020).
It is anticipated that by end 2016 Pathfinder will have:
- developed an implementation plan to coordinate and give effect to identified actions relevant to youth mental health in Connecting for Life and any other actions necessary to support and advance youth mental health and well-being;
- determined new approaches to the implementation of these actions in conjunction with relevant delivery partners, which may involve small scale testing or piloting;
- initiated implementation of priority youth mental health actions and
- reported progress on a quarterly basis to the Civil Service Management Board and participated in sharing learning with other pathfinder and/or cross-government projects.
In addition Minister McEntee has initiated a Taskforce on Youth Mental Health as part of the programme for Government and my Department is represented on this Taskforce. One of the challenges of providing a coordinated, streamlined approach to promoting well-being and mental health is of course the fact that there are so many statutory and voluntary agencies/services/NGOs involved. The Taskforce will consider how best to introduce and teach resilience, coping mechanisms, greater awareness to children and young people, and how to access support services voluntarily at a young age. It is intended that an action plan for addressing youth mental health will be the outcome of the Taskforce. It is likely that in this context recommendations will be made with regard to community mental health services and agencies tasked with delivering services. My Department is actively involved in this work.
