Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the most recent information relating to the average caseload for each educational welfare officer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25729/06]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 54: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she is satisfied with the resources allocated to the National Educational Welfare Board and the number of educational welfare officers at present. [25811/06]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of educational welfare officers employed by the National Educational Welfare Board; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25727/06]

Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will ensure that the National Educational Welfare Board is allocated sufficient funding in the 2006 budget to allow it to recruit its full quota of educational welfare officers to carry out its statutory duty; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25932/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 34, 54, 84 and 94 together.

The National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, was established under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework to promote regular school attendance and tackle the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that every child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.

The board is developing, on a continuing basis, a nationwide service that is accessible to schools, parents, guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. For this purpose, educational welfare officers have been deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the board's functions locally. The authorised staffing complement of the board is 94, comprising 16 headquarter and support staff, five regional managers, 12 senior educational welfare officers and 61 officers. Five regional teams are in place with bases in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

In deploying its service staff, the NEWB has prioritised the provision of services to the most disadvantaged areas and the groups most at risk. This deployment includes areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme where an intensive full level of service is provided.

Since September 2005, every county in Ireland is served by an educational welfare service. I have been informed by the NEWB that the current average caseload is 138 per officer. This compares with an average caseload in July 2005 of 164 per officer. The decrease can be partially attributed to the appointment of ten more staff at the end of 2005. The budget allocated to the NEWB for 2006 is €8.15 million, with the allocation to the board having increased by more than 25% since 2004 to support it in delivering on its key objectives.

In addition to the NEWB personnel, 490 staff within the education sector are deployed in education disadvantage programmes whose work involves an element of school attendance, and significant scope exists for integrated working between these personnel and educational welfare officers. 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 all agencies and services to work together in collaboration and to ensure that optimum use is made of the resources deployed.

The Government is determined to do all that is possible to ensure that every child gets all the opportunities and support he or she needs to enable him or her to achieve his or her potential and participate fully in education. I will keep the issue of the NEWB's staffing and financial resources under review in light of the roll-out of services, the scope for integrated working and any proposals that the board may put to me regarding clearly identified priority needs. In that context, the draft partnership agreement, Towards 2016, includes provision for an additional 100 posts for the NEWB and the National Educational Psychological Service by 2009, which I hope will be adopted by the partners.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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When one speaks to individual schools, their comment on the National Educational Welfare Board when contacted about an individual child is that it is good in coming back to assist that child. On the issue of officers being able to visit schools uninvited and look at the difficulties, the drop-out rates and the failure to make transition, the board does not have the time or resources to do that because of the number of caseloads. Will the Minister comment on whether that is an accurate assessment?

The Minister has mentioned that there is a degree of overlap between the home-school-community liaison scheme and the National Educational Welfare Board. What is the level of communication between the two entities? Are there specific areas to which each should be assigned or should there be a greater degree of co-ordination between them? The National Educational Welfare Board informs us it is under-resourced and that it does not have enough personnel. While there is a need for many more officers, we must ensure there is not unnecessary overlap between the two entities.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The educational welfare officer should be the last port of call. It is only when a case has been dealt with by all the other bodies in respect of a particular child that the educational welfare officer should be called. That would allow them to look at the general position.

A substantial number of groups have a direct involvement with the child and his or her family but it would not be possible to designate each of them specific areas of responsibility because every child in the family is such a complex unit. There is a need for protocols between them and that is what we are working on. The assistant chief inspector is chairing the working group.

The bodies dealing with such children include the National Educational Welfare Board, the National Council for Special Education, because obviously children who may have particular learning difficulties are more likely to drop out of schools and particular attention has to be paid to them, the National Educational Psychological Service, the visiting teacher service for the hearing and the visually impaired, the home-school-community liaison scheme, the school completion programme and those directly employed in that area, and the visiting teacher service for Travellers. Through all those groups, 490 people work specifically with disadvantaged children and part of their remit is to ensure they regularly attend school. All those groups have been working together along with the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and the Irish Primary Principals Network with a view to developing protocols for each of those groups so that those children can be targeted and the level of absenteeism reduced.