Mr. Brendan Doody:

We are progressing guidelines for schools on behaviours of concern. This work has been under way for a couple of years at this point, although it was interrupted by Covid. There are particular reasons why we have developed the guidelines, one being that it was a recommendation in previous NCSE policy advice from 2018. Equally, we are listening to special schools in particular. Those schools are telling us clearly and unambiguously that they need extra support and guidance in respect of managing behaviours of concern. That work is at a very advanced stage. We established an expert working group with representatives from NEPS, academic experts in the area, the NCSE, Tusla's education support service, the inspectorate and so on. I am sure I am leaving somebody out but there was a very broad range of people with a great deal of expertise and experience in this area. It was a really extensive consultation. About 2,600 submissions were received, which had to be analysed and parsed. More recently, we have had very extensive consultation with stakeholders, advocacy groups and so on in respect of the guidelines we will be putting out into the system. Part of the work involved reviewing what is in place in other jurisdictions to see if we are aligning ourselves with what is in place there, particularly in respect of things such as restraints, which the Deputy referenced. It is critically important that how we guide schools is sound both legally and educationally. We have done that. We have done those checks. We would hope to be in a position to make this available to schools in the near future.