Ms Ann O'Dwyer:

I will talk about the roadmap. An issue we have not mentioned today is the student support team role in schools, which particularly addresses mental health issues, whether they are caused by bullying or otherwise. The student support team model was introduced four or five years ago to help vulnerable children and there are pilots happening throughout the country. We have engaged with NEPS on this and we are working with it to provide training for all schools in County Kerry, both ETB schools and non-ETB schools.

We have noticed over the past four years, since we introduced this training programme of three full days for everybody on the student support scheme, that the feedback from schools is it has made a very big impact, particularly in dealing with the most vulnerable of our students. These students have been victims of bullying in some cases and they are very vulnerable for many reasons. It is the few students rather than the many. I would like to see that as part of the roadmap to be rolled out very clearly.

The most significant feature of this process is the relationship built between NEPS and schools and that two-way relationship should improve. There is also a relationship with CAMHS and with Tusla and its mental health programme, as well as Tusla's child protection section. Where there is a Jigsaw programme available, that group is involved as well. There is a steering committee for managing and delivering the programme representing all the agencies. The relationship built between the school and those agencies clarifies the role and function of student support schemes and it clarifies the appropriate referral pathways for students. It also clarifies the boundaries of student support teams, including what the school can do and what the school should not be involved in. It is one element of the roadmap and we must ensure that in the next three to five years, that training is provided for every student support team. It is a cyclical programme because there will be changes in staff.

There are at least two if not three therapies that schools should be able to access. One is therapeutic counselling for students who need it and the student support team will be the group in school that will make that referral. The other two therapies to which schools need access fairly immediately are occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Occupational therapy is particularly relevant to all our schools. For example, we have nine special classes across schools and many students are suffering from anxiety and mental health issues. Occupational therapists can work side by side with a teacher and there is a pilot under way in Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin that we are all reading about, as a report was compiled last September. That process should certainly be rolled out across the country. We should have access to therapy in the school, with occupational and speech and language therapists working side by side with teachers and with schools reinforcing those therapies such as behaviour management, where students can learn to manage their own behaviour, particularly those students suffering from anxiety.

I would like to see these two elements as clear parts of the roadmap, along with what I mentioned earlier regarding the training for SPHE teachers.