Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills
Mental Health Supports in Schools and Tertiary Education
Ms Maureen Murray:
We have 14 throughout the country and this programme is only available in those areas. By the way, the services we have currently in the 14 areas are all delivered therapeutic services by a variety of clinicians from different disciplines.
One of the things about the One Good School programme is that we need to see it go national. It is so unfair that this programme is only available to schools within our service areas. In order for it to go national, we need funding because it is currently totally funded by fundraising. There is no State support for it.
I will finish on this point. We have heard about various social and emotional learning programmes that are in place. Our One Good School programme can incorporate them and give a structure in which schools can use those programmes. We know that coming in and doing once-off events or programmes that are then allowed to fall away has less use than, let us say, the One Good School programme in which we offer a very solid, defined structure. These programmes can very much fit into our own programme.