Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 June 2023
308. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education to provide a reason for the omission of the term "homophobic", "transphobic" and "biphobic" from the most recent Action Plan on Bullying, Cineáltas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31055/23]
View answerIn December 2022, my Department published Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying following an extensive consultation process. Cineáltas is founded on a rights-based approach, rooted in four key principles prevention, support, oversight and community and provides a clear roadmap for how the whole education community and society can work together to prevent and address bullying in our schools.
The implementation plan for Cineáltas was published on 10 April 2023 and this plan commits to implementing each of the 61 actions contained in Cineáltas within a 5 year period.
Cineáltas was developed by the Department of Education in collaboration with a diverse and dedicated Steering Committee led by Dr Noel Purdy of Stranmillis University College in Belfast. The Steering Committee consisted of senior officials from the Department of Education, including the Inspectorate and the National Educational Psychological Service, representatives of the National Parents’ Council Primary, National Parents’ Council Post-Primary, Irish Second Level Students’ Union (ISSU), the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the National Anti-bullying Research Centre in DCU and other external experts and representatives of advocacy organisations which include BelongTo, Webwise, Parentline National Traveller Women’s Forum, Women’s Aid and the Independent Living Movement Ireland.
This review and development of Cineáltas involved significant consultation and collaboration across my Department, with other Government Departments and Bodies including the Ombudsman for Children, and also involves consultation with a broad range of education stakeholders, including parents and students, school management bodies and teacher and school staff unions.
The implementation of the actions in Cineáltas will greatly enhance and compliment the work that schools already do to ensure that all the children and young people are kept safe from harm and that the wellbeing of children and young people is at the forefront of everything we do.
Cineáltas contains a commitment to develop a new inspection model to assess whether a school has appropriate strategies in place to promote wellbeing, prevent and address bullying, and promote a positive and inclusive school culture. This new inspection model will be rolled out in schools early in 2024.
Cineáltas also contains the following relevant commitments:
• To continue to support the Stand Up Awareness Campaign
• To update the Being LGBT in School Resource
• To update the Anti-bullying procedures for primary and post-primary schools
• To update the Developing a Code of Behaviour Guidelines for Schools
• To ensure the FUSE anti-bullying and online safety programme is more widely available to schools
• To support the development of additional modules of the FUSE programme
• The SPHE/RSE curriculum across primary and post primary schools will be reviewed and updated to ensure that it includes, in an age appropriate manner, the areas of consent; healthy positive, sexual expression and relationships; safe use of the internet and social media and its effects on relationships and self-esteem; and LGBTQ+ identities.
All recognised primary and post-primary schools, and centres for education which are attended by students under the age of 18 years are required to adhere to anti-bullying procedures which were published in 2013.
These procedures give direction and guidance to school authorities and school personnel in preventing and addressing bullying behaviour including homophobic, transphobic and identity-based bullying, amongst its pupils and in dealing with any negative impact within school of bullying behaviour that occurs elsewhere.
All schools are required to confirm in their anti-bullying policy that the school will, in accordance with its obligations under equality legislation, take all such steps that are reasonably practicable to prevent the sexual harassment of pupils or staff or the harassment of pupils or staff on any of the nine grounds i.e. gender including transgender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community.
My Department is currently working with the education partners to update the anti-bullying procedures for schools with a view to the updated procedures being implemented in schools during 2023.
The anti-bullying procedures are being updated to take account of gender identity bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, sexist bullying and sexual harassment. This is in addition to the information currently provided in the procedures that advises schools on how to prevent and address identity based bullying such as homophobic and transphobic bullying. The procedures will also provide guidance as to when an incident of bullying becomes a Child Protection Concern, will ensure appropriate oversight at school level, and will ensure that a school’s anti-bullying policy is developed and reviewed in consultation with the whole school community.
Training and information, which will support all members of the school community to work in partnership to implement the new procedures, will be made available to all school staff, board of management members and parents.
