Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021
328. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education the number of times that the critical incident policy mechanism has been implemented in schools from 2009 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58679/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of my Department provides guidelines and resource materials for schools to enable them to deal with certain traumatic events which can adversely affect pupils and school staff. The publication "Responding to Critical Incidents: NEPS Guidelines and Resource Materials for Schools’ outlines how schools can plan for crises. The guidelines also refer to preventive approaches that schools can adopt in creating a safe and supportive environment.
The publication provides practical step-by-step guidelines for teachers and principals on how to respond when a tragedy occurs. It offers support to schools at a potentially overwhelming time. The guidelines focus upon alerting schools to planning processes, structures and actions which will better allow them to cope with a traumatic incidents such as suicide or suspected suicide, murder, accidental death including road traffic accidents and drowning, and death through illness of members of the school community. In relation to suicide, advice is also given on prevention and positive mental health stratagems and approaches.
The Guidelines "Responding to Critical Incidents: NEPS Guidelines and Resource Materials for Schools’ are kept under constant review and a third edition was circulated by NEPS to schools in 2016. Training in critical incident planning is part of the service provided by NEPS to schools and has been a focus of my Department’s Action Plan for Education since 2016. In order to increase the reach of Critical Incident training to all schools, NEPS has developed an eLearning course Responding to Critical Incidents in Schools – eLearning Course’ to accompany "Responding to Critical Incidents: NEPS Guidelines and Resource Materials for Schools’. It is expected that this will be available in Q1 2022.
In relation to the Deputy’s specific questions in this regard, critical incidents are by their nature situations so named by schools themselves – traumatic events which have the potential to disrupt the normal operation of the school. In such instances, when a school deems itself to have experienced a critical incident, a school’s Critical incident policy and plan is activated.
Depending upon the nature, severity or context of an event, schools may respond to a critical incident independently of NEPS support. On other occasions they may initiate contact with NEPS to seek advice or confirmation as to how they should proceed in relation to a particular event or part of the process. In many situations school authorities are satisfied to proceed with a response without further input from NEPS. In other situations, school authorities may request the attendance of NEPS psychologists on-site to provide appropriate advice and assistance in the delivery of the response. When requested, NEPS will attend at the schools immediately following such incidents to offer direct advice and assistance to school staff in managing the situation. The nature and extent of the incident, as well as a school’s capacity to respond will determine the degree of ongoing support required of NEPS.
In terms of the number of critical incidents, 1557 critical incident responses were provided in schools by NEPS psychologists between September 2009 - 2021.
