Skip to main content
Normal View

Homelessness Strategy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 November 2018

Wednesday, 28 November 2018

Questions (35)

Thomas Byrne

Question:

35. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the actions taken by his Department to address child poverty and homelessness in view of an organisation's (details supplied) description of child poverty as the crisis of our times. [49723/18]

View answer

Oral answers (6 contributions)

I seek to raise child homelessness on foot of the report by the Children's Rights Alliance and the response of the Department of Education and Skills to it. I accept that it is not responsible for the full response of the Government but the Department has a key role to play and the report of the Children's Rights Alliance refers to a number of initiatives. The report serves to highlight the challenges that children and their families face with child poverty and, in particular, homelessness. However, teachers also face a challenge in dealing with the crises as presented to them in school.

A range of resources are available to support schools in dealing with identified additional educational needs, including needs which may arise for children who are experiencing homelessness. These include National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, supports and Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, supports.

Identification of need and early intervention strategies are considered key components to supporting children who experience homelessness. NEPS works with schools through the Department of Education and Skills continuum of support framework. The NEPS model of service works through a problem solving and solution oriented consultative approach to support schools to meet the needs of individual pupils. NEPS psychologists can provide advice and guidance to principals and teachers on individual students' needs and in the development of whole-school approaches to support inclusion, participation and integration.

DEIS is the main policy initiative of my Department to tackle educational disadvantage. DEIS provides additional supports, through the DEIS school support programme, to schools identified as having the highest concentrations of pupils from disadvantaged communities. Schools can use the additional resources to meet the identified needs of their pupil cohort, including the additional needs that may arise for pupils experiencing homelessness.

DEIS schools can also avail of home school community liaison and school completion supports provided by Tusla's educational welfare service in relation to school attendance, retention and progression which can be areas of particular challenge to pupils experiencing homelessness.

In addition, the Department of Employment and Social Protection runs the school meals programme, which provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,580 schools and organisations benefitting 250,000 children. My Department is also represented on the homelessness inter-agency group established by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to co-ordinate the State's efforts to tackle homelessness.

In its report, the Children's Rights Alliance recommends a number of measures. I accept that this is not primarily a matter for the Department of Education and Skills but the alliance recommends that the Government set up an inter-agency group involving the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to steer services and to see what each Department can do. The Department of Education and Skills has a particular role. The Children's Rights Alliance has recommended that the school completion programme would be extended to homeless children in non-DEIS schools. What is happening in the private rental sector in particular is that children are not necessarily in DEIS schools. If one is in a local authority estate and the local school is a DEIS school then one has access to all the services based on the demographic of the area. However, if one is in the private rented sector in a non-DEIS area one does not have access to many of the services. Children are losing out significantly on their education whether through non-attendance or due to being exhausted in school. As the Children's Rights Alliance recommends, the Department must track the progress of those children to ensure that they do not lose out on educational attainments.

Something else the Minister could and should do immediately, which is also recommended by the Children's Rights Alliance, is issue a circular providing advice and guidance to schools on educational provision for children experiencing homelessness.

There could also be recommendations to boards of management to address school costs, voluntary donations etc. Some instructional advice from the Department of Education and Skills would go a long way.

That is a fair enough suggestion. Anecdotally, I am picking up more examples of the prevalence of child homelessness in feedback from teachers dealing with children in homelessness. It would be a wise and important suggestion to ensure that all the information on whatever supports are available is provided to schools. Reading excerpts from the report of the research carried out by the Children's Rights Alliance, one of the areas highlighted is a failure to retain predictability in educational continuity. That is important in education. I will ensure that boards of management and school principals are aware of the available supports.

The Minister is new to his portfolio but the one word that concerns me, which reflects on the Department rather than the Minister himself, is "anecdotally". Has the Department statistics or information on the extent of the problem in schools? One of the recommendations from the Children's Rights Alliance is that the educational attainments of children be tracked. I am concerned, however, that the Minister and the Department do not have information about individual children.

We know from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government how many children have been left homeless but the Minister for Education and Skills and his Department do not know what is happening to those children in schools. It is not known what schools they are concentrated in, how their educational attainments are being mishandled because of this crisis and what resources schools need. The Department needs to up its game on this issue and make sure these children are looked after and that they do not lose out educationally because of the homelessness situation in which they and their families find themselves.

Tackling educational disadvantage has been one of the positive outcomes of the work of the Department over the past number of years. Currently, we are reviewing the delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, scheme and educational disadvantage. Educational disadvantage changes and evolves and new issues and challenges arise. As part of our review of DEIS, we are using data we are compiling from postcodes on where people are living and also information on unemployment issues in regard to certain families. We need, however, to be adaptable regarding the changing nature of educational disadvantage. Over the past five to ten years, homelessness has certainly become a major issue. My officials are aware of that and I will ensure, whatever measuring instruments are used to tackle educational disadvantage, that continuity of education and the disruption and lack of certainty for families and children going to school is part of any analysis in the future.

Top
Share