Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Child and Family Agency (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

4:22 pm

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the legislation, I believe it makes sense to have these functions within the Department of Education. It is logical and the feedback I get from school completion projects and from education welfare officers is that it is logical. There are some issues and concerns that we need to watch but that is not a reason not to do it. When they were in Tusla, some education welfare officers who had to take, for example, a section 29, felt it was useful, in order to convince parents they were on their side, to say they were not employed by the Department of Education but that they worked for Tusla. That is certainly not a reason not to proceed with it. The reasons, by and large, make sense. A lot of these functions began with the Department of Education in the first place, although I think some of them actually started with the city and county councils. I know school completion workers, particularly education welfare officers, will function independently because I have confidence in them to do that. What is important is that the perception is out there and that they have the ability to represent the fact they are independent.

We often talk of education in terms of achievement and results and the biggest story in education in many years is the leaving certificate and everything that goes with it. However, what can often be forgotten is that for many students, many families and many schools, ensuring that the child finishes school is an enormous achievement in itself. We need to recognise the fact that for many schools, school completion workers, families and particularly the students themselves, that is a big effort that involves a lot of work, and it does not happen by accident. That is why we have school completion, namely, to make sure they have the assistance they need.

Perhaps we have never needed it more than we need it now. Covid, for reasons that were in many ways unavoidable, has meant the connection that some students had with education was disrupted. There are reports that 4,500 young people did not return to school when it reopened following Covid. That is a significant and worrying number. For each of those, this is enormously tied in with their future. We need to invest in it. While the Covid learning and support scheme which was announced by the Minister is welcome, it does not go far enough to ensure that young people at risk of becoming disengaged are supported and included. Additional teaching hours are well and good but that is not going to deal with potential regression for people like that. It is a pity there was no increase in funding for school completion in the budget.

I will talk about DEIS shortly. There is an argument that every child and every school should have access to a school completion worker, not necessarily that one would be allocated to each school, but that there would be one across a number of schools that are non-DEIS or across a catchment area. Challenges can happen in a family’s life or an individual's life, and disadvantage may be more dispersed than it once was. There is an argument for that.

We are looking at the expansion of DEIS, which is welcome. The last time DEIS was expanded, although it was welcome, a huge opportunity was missed in that no DEIS band 2 schools were added. Schools at DEIS band 2 went up to DEIS band 1 and some schools went straight in at DEIS band 1. That means schools that might not have the very highest levels of disadvantage to justify the much-reduced pupil-teacher ratios could have qualified for DEIS band 2 had that criteria been used, could have accessed school completion, could have accessed home-school community liaison and could have accessed school meals, and it is much less expensive than DEIS band 1. This review needs to involve new DEIS band 1 schools but it has to crack that whole area. It has to ensure that schools that could benefit from those things do benefit.

To give an example, I spoke to a principal in a non-DEIS school this morning. In recent weeks, it had a family who had a related family in the school. They arrived in Ireland and they are trying to sort out everything to do with PPS numbers and all the rest of it. The school had to deal with six additional children from a family with very little money and no place to stay. It tried to organise uniforms and tried to help them settle in. That school did not have home-school liaison and school completion, and this was all left on the principal’s desk. That is not how it should be. Schools facing these challenges need additional support and that includes school completion and home-school liaison. It is vital this is looked at in the expansion of DEIS.

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