Ms Rachel O'Connor:

I am the principal of Ramsgrange Community School in County Wexford since 2013 and the incoming president of the NAPD. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to this topic today. I will briefly speak to three headings, namely, bullying procedures in schools, the impact of Covid and what needs to be addressed to proactively support schools that are incredibly proactivearound promoting anti-bullying behaviour.

According to the Department of Education, responsibility for tackling bullying in school falls to the level of each individual school. The anti-bullying procedures for primary and post-primary schools, as have been well documented and discussed here, were published almost eight years ago in September 2013. Society and the educational landscape have changed almost beyond recognition since then so I call for an urgent review of these procedures.

In all our schools anti-bullying campaigns, positive behaviour strategies, restorative practices, etc., highlight behaviours that may be more obvious such as name-calling, exclusion and even general pushing and shoving. Most schools are aware of these behaviours and are well equipped to deal with them.

Looking, however, at the past 15 months and the overnight move to the online space, it has been far more difficult to monitor bullying and bullying behaviour. Schools have had to play catch-up in respect of online etiquette, rules and guidelines for all stakeholders. A major issue with the anti-bullying procedures of 2013 is that schools are responsible for dealing with any negative impact within school of bullying behaviour that occurs elsewhere. Bullying that occurs online and outside of school gives no boundaries to the remit of the responsibility of the school. That is a very large task and very different from what schools faced in 2013. Schools need to be adequately resourced to face the modern-day challenges of preventing bullying and promoting positive behaviour. Appropriate investment is needed to support parents to resource an effective link between home and school to identify, call out and tackle the issue.

The fallout from Covid, the move to the online space and the impact on mental health has exposed a lot of shortcomings in mental health services for students. The reality is that schools can plug the gap of the lack of intervention supports only for so long. There are cases in which expert treatment and intervention is essential, and schools do not have the resources to tackle these situations. The focus of schools should be on prevention rather than intervention. More resources should be allocated to schools. As the Department of Education is engaging in the new digital learning strategy, why not ring-fence some of that money for targeted online cyberbullying prevention? NAPD, nationally, is gravely concerned about access to youth mental health supports. I can speak about my region, the south east, where there is a lack of expert intervention and supports outside of school. I will name but a couple of examples. There is one full-time child and adolescent psychiatrist position in Wexford, which has yet to be filled in a permanent capacity. This has been the case for several years now. CAMHS is under-resourced and is failing to meet the needs of our vulnerable students, particularly students who fall between the ages of 16 and 18. I am aware of colleagues who have had cases which have been referred through a GP after self-harm, suicidal ideation or threats of violence to themselves or others and who have been told there is a waiting list of between eight to 12 months. I am also aware of three parents in the past 12 to 18 months who have resorted to bringing their children to accident and emergency departments and refusing to leave until their children were prioritised to be seen by a member of a CAMHS team. However, even when students have been through the CAMHS process and received a diagnosis, there is no link-in with the school and no follow-up in the form of school-based support. In such circumstances many must turn to Pieta House for help. CAHMS, in its letter, states that it has no expertise in education. A determination as to the child's care or educational needs in the school setting can be made only by the relevant professionals in the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. In the past two years, in my school in Ramsgrange, we have had no NEPS as our fantastic psychologist has been on maternity leave. The school is then assigned assessments by the scheme for the commissioning of psychological assessments, SCPA, but most find there is a severe shortage of people who are willing to complete these, mostly due to our geographical location. In the past academic year alone my school was sanctioned two SCPA assessments. We approached 12 psychologists from the prescribed list and we failed to get anybody to complete these assessments. NEPS needs to be resourced adequately to cater for 2021 demands. Occupational therapist services in Wexford are currently working through their January 2018 list, which means some children will be on that list for five years before they are seen.

To finish where I began, our schools aredoing fantastic work providing the "one good adult", which suits most students, but we need help. Our students and society at large need help now. Our schools are at the coalface. Educators are experiencing the societal fallout from Covid and will do so for the school generation to come. I call for more investment in restorative practices and supports to create a culture of dialogue and openness in our schools. I am happy to expand on any issues raised in my opening remarks as well as the February submission made on behalf of NAPD.