Vol. 520 No. 5
12 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans he has to develop a system of local education networks to achieve better co-operation, joint programmes and partnership arrangements between schools and other service providers and community groups. [16181/00]
An integral part of the Department's strategy to address educational disadvantage is the promotion of enhanced links between schools and their communities. These links and partnership arrangements operate through the employment of home-school-community liaison co-ordinators in schools in disadvantaged areas, through the role of parents and community interests on school boards of management, through the work of the vocational education committees on local drugs task forces and in the area partnerships, through the co-ordinating activities of the youth service and through the requirement for multi-agency linkages as an integral aspect of the eight to 15 year old early school and stay in school initiatives.
Area referral networks with links to employment, training, youth, welfare, health and pro bation services and with a wide range of community interests are part of the approach with such programmes as Youthreach and the adult literacy service. Section 22 of the Education (Welfare) Bill currently before the House provides that schools will, with assistance from the National Educational Welfare Board, prepare statements of strategy, setting out how they intend to reduce the incidence of non-attendance by pupils in their schools. Paragraph (d) provides that these statements of strategy shall provide for “the fostering, promoting and establishing of contacts by the school with other schools that provide primary or post-primary education and with bodies engaged in the provision of youth work programmes or services related thereto, or engaged in the organisation or sporting activities.” This provision will enable schools to develop and engage in a network of local bodies which have as a core focus the provision of services to children and young persons of school going age. It will help to ensure that students receive a more holistic education, not limited purely to the school but also embracing a wider section of the local community.
I hope that the Education (Welfare) Bill will be passed by this House in the near future to allow for a speedy enactment. This will allow for the establishment of the welfare service on a phased basis, initially focusing on areas of disadvantage and thereafter expanding to become a nationwide service.
The Youth Work Bill, 2000, which was published recently, will provide a statutory framework for the delivery of youth work services at local level by the vocational education committees. The Bill provides for the establishment of youth work committees by vocational educational committees, which will be representative of all the interested parties and groups at local level.
Each of the 38 area based partnerships established training and education sub-committees as specified in the Operational Programme for Urban and Rural Development, 1994-99. The role of these committees is to identify how partnerships can best support education and training provision at local level in conjunction with mainstream providers, as appropriate.
My Department contributes to the planning work of these committees through my nominated representatives who are drawn from the Department's inspectorate and educational psychological services. In addition, each partnership has the services of an education co-ordinator, 12 full-time and 26 part-time posts, which are funded by my Department.
I believe the arrangements I have outlined to the House provide for a significant amount of networking between education and sectors of the community. This is a process which I propose to continue and develop in the future.
The Minister's predecessor strongly resisted any devolution of power which at the time was centred in regional education authorities. Although he indicated that he was sympathetic to alternative county groups, he never indicated what powers such groups would have or whether those powers would be purely advisory. Does the current Minister support devolved power to local bodies which would have some power over spending on educational resources at local level? Does he support the principle of subsidiarity and does he believe that would help to create more devolved administration and establish improved co-ordination at local level?
I set about reorganising administration within my Department to ensure improved local involvement approximately one week after taking up office. A study of administration within the Department is currently under way and the various groups and unions in the Department are co-operating in order to bring administration down to local level and to local people. In that sense, yes.
Does the Minister believe in any local authority which would bring together local representatives of education interests and local communities, who would have money at their disposal so there could be genuinely devolved and democratically controlled policies at local level? Does the Minister support that concept, as opposed to mere decentralisation of his own administration?
If we are to have bottom-up management my Department must be involved at local level with local groups. We want to see ideas coming back from there and dealt with at the most local level possible. In that sense, I want to see devolution throughout the country and I will encourage that.
The study is ongoing. It is a three month study so we should have the results of it in the autumn. That will give us a chance to look at the recommendations and see where we go from there.
The Minister appears to accept that his Department is too centralised. Does he propose local structures for the delivery of services in the foreseeable future, to ensure that education services are more responsive to local needs? Does he intend to establish structures, apart from aspirations that more local fora may be established?
My purpose in getting the study under way is to examine the operation of the Department, particularly its operation at local level. I have my own views on how things should happen. I invite the Deputy to look at what I did in the Department of Social Welfare. However, I will not prejudge any situation. We are having a root and branch examination of the Department of Education and Science.
