Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
241. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Education to comment on the CSO dataset 'Educational Attendance and Attainment of Children in Care, 2018 - 2023' published recently; to outline how her Department is responding to the gaps identified for children in care in education; if her Department intends to further research this area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3511/24]
View answerThe report referred to by the Deputy was published last August by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The report looks at educational attendance and attainment of children in care in January 2023 and children who left care since April 2018. It is available at
www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/fp/fp-eaacc/educationalattendanceandattainmentofchildrenincare2018-2023/.
The report is part of the CSO Frontier Series and may use new methods which are under development and / or data sources which may be incomplete, for example, new administrative data sources.
In this report, of the 9,744 children in care during January 2023 or children who left care since April 2018, 77% were successfully linked to other pseudonymised administrative data sources including Revenue, Department of Education and the Department of Social Protection
In line with the arrangements set out as part of the current Government formation, since January 2021 Tusla Education Support Services (TESS), including the administration of the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme and the School Completion Programme (SCP) is under my remit.
TESS operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS has three strands namely the Statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two school support services the Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL) and the School Completion Programme (SCP). The three TESS strands work together collaboratively with schools, parents and guardians and other relevant services to achieve the best educational outcomes for children and young people. All three strands share the same national outcomes:
• Improved Attendance
• Improved Participation
• Improved Retention
In September 2023, a specialist post of Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) for Children in Care was established in TESS. This post is funded by my Department and aims to support the ongoing education of children in care. The EWO for children in care works with Social Workers, Social Care Workers, local TESS staff and schools to ensure that young people who move in their care placement are supported to access school places quickly and to minimise gaps in their education. TESS will continue to develop the role in line with the learning from 'Educational Attendance and Attainment of Children in Care, 2018 - 2023' and any subsequent data sets published by the CSO.
