Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education. To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service that is accessible to schools, parents or guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. For this purpose, educational welfare officers are being appointed and deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare-focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the board's functions locally.

The service is developing on a continuing basis. The total authorised staffing complement is currently 94, comprising 16 headquarters and support staff, five regional managers, 12 senior educational welfare officers and 61 educational welfare officers. In deploying its service staff, the board has prioritised the provision of services to the most disadvantaged areas and most at risk groups. Five regional teams are in place with bases in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and staff have been deployed in areas of greatest disadvantage and in areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme. An education welfare service is available in every county in Ireland.

The board indicated to my Department that the average caseload of each educational welfare officer as of July 2005 was approximately 164. The board continually reviews the protocols for prioritising children and families who require intervention to ensure that children with the greatest need gain maximum benefit from available resources, and to work with local agencies in prioritising children's and family needs. In this regard, there are some 490 staff in education disadvantage programmes whose work involves a school attendance element. My Department is anxious to ensure that the maximum benefit is derived from these substantial personnel resources. Consequently, work is ongoing to develop appropriate protocols for integrated working between the different services involved.

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