Peter Burke
Question:290. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Education when a pilot scheme for larger primary schools in a region (details supplied) will be functional and providing counselling services. [10124/24]
View answerTuesday, 5 March 2024
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The Department of Education is committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of our children and I have secured funding in Budget 2023 and 2024 to pilot for the first time the provision of direct counselling and wellbeing supports in almost 650 primary schools across the country. This complements the excellent work that schools already undertake in respect of wellbeing, as well as other services provided by the state, such as the National Educational Psychologists Service and by the HSE.
The Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot 2023-25 (CPS-P) includes two Strands. Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support a small number of children in all primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of a new type of support to schools from Education Wellbeing Teams and the introduction of Education Wellbeing Practitioners to support clusters of schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16.
Under Strand 1, panels of counsellors have been established for the seven pilot counties. Counsellors on the panel are currently providing counselling sessions to a number of children in primary schools in the pilot counties. There are currently 29 counsellors on panels across the seven counties. This is below the anticipated number of counsellors that we expected to apply to work on the pilot. NEPS continue to accept and process applications from counsellors on an ongoing basis. The six accrediting bodies for counsellors who have been supporting this work, have contacted their membership in order to encourage recruitment of additional counsellors to the panels.
NEPS on behalf of the Department of Education progressed the first phase of the pilot in November 2023, when a letter was sent to the first number of schools in Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, and Tipperary advising them of their allocation of blocks of counselling sessions for children. In the first instance an allocation of blocks of counselling was given to the larger schools in selected counties.
NEPS psychologist made contact with all the schools that were allocated blocks of counselling to agree with the school, the pupils to prioritise for counselling and a suggested counsellor to contact from the panel, based on location and counsellor’s availability. Schools then commissioned the counsellors directly to provide the service, which children in a number of schools have already benefitted from. Blocks with eight counselling sessions in each block, were allocated to 246 of schools in the pilot counties. We are looking at the next allocation to schools, which includes an allocation to smaller schools in the pilot counties
Guidelines for Schools have been provided to support schools in the implementation of Strand 1 of the pilot. A dedicated webpage with information for parents, information for counsellors and information for schools is also available on gov.ie.
Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of a new type of support to schools from Education Wellbeing Teams and the introduction of Education Wellbeing Practitioners to support clusters of schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. The Education Wellbeing Practitioner is a new role in schools being introduced as part of this pilot to provide enhanced in-school support. The practitioners are graduates from psychology, education and social science. The recruitment process for the practitioners is complete, and they have undergone an intensive training programme provided by NEPS and have commenced visiting and supporting schools in recent weeks. NEPS psychologists are providing oversight and professional supervision to support and maintain the work undertaken by the practitioners. This will ensure safe practice and the use of evidence-informed programmes and supports in schools.
The focus of the support to be provided under Strand 2 is on strengthening whole school approaches to promoting wellbeing, in line with the Department of Education’s Wellbeing Policy and Framework for Practice. This includes offering psycho-educational support for parents and teachers, and the delivery of evidence-based interventions to children to promote resilience and coping strategies and to maintain and develop wellbeing.
NEPS has met with officials from the Department of Education in Northern Ireland in relation to the Healthy Happy Minds Pilot, which was the provision of counselling in schools. NEPS have also met with the Education Authority in Dorset in the UK and with a Mental Health Support Team in West Sussex in relation to the Mental Health Support Teams model. A team from NEPS visited Dorset and West Sussex last December to meet with Mental Health leads, Education Mental Health Practitioners, and counsellors involved in the project. The NEPS team also visited schools in the project to learn from how the project was implemented.
Through this existing pilot programme and subsequent evaluation we are confident that we will gather valuable learning that will inform future policy and provision in this area.