Ms Margaret Grogan:

The key to the successful implementation of the mental health guidelines lies in taking a co-ordinated whole-school approach and the guidelines set out the existing elements that are available to schools such as school staff evaluation processes, the social, personal and health education, SPHE, curriculum, whole-school guidance planning, the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, continuum of support and the inter-agency collaboration and support that is available externally to schools. The guidelines set out the integration of all those elements which are already in place. The services for schools to support this are already in existence. For example, the Social, Personal and Health Education Support Service is available to provide training for schools, and my colleague, Ms Frances Shearer, may wish to say more about that.

I represent NEPS. Our service is available to support schools in promoting mental health. In collaboration with the SPHE support service, we would be available to schools to build on the professional development work they do with teachers. We would be available to advise and support schools on whole-school guidance planning and on developing student support structures and teams. Schools can draw on the expertise in our service for their developmental needs. We also provide Incredible Years teacher training which focuses on behaviour management and classroom management. We are currently rolling out the Friends for Life programme. It uses a cognitive behavioural approach to managing anxiety and stress and is applicable at primary and post-primary level. The elements in that programme complement and are part of the SPHE curriculum. In addition, the NEPS provides guidelines and support to schools to deal with crises or tragic events that may occur. This is very important in terms of prevention. Our focus is on early intervention and prevention. The continuum of support which has been rolled out by NEPS to primary schools since 2007 and to post-primary schools since 2010 is a framework for schools whereby we ask them to identify early on the needs and supports young people require before those needs become serious difficulties. In terms of our work with schools, it is on that area we will be focusing our attention in the coming years.