Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline the provision of in-school counselling for students at post primary level and the in-school services for students in post-parasuicide or post-attempted suicide situations; and his plans to make recommendations to schools to provide in-school counselling for students. [9928/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Social Personal and Health Education, otherwise known as SPHE, is designed to promote students' coping and decision-making skills, and encourage healthy lifestyles. The modules at junior cycle deal specifically with belonging and integrating, coping with stress, emotional health and well-being, and relationships and sexuality education. An awareness of when, how and from whom to seek help, when in difficulty, is promoted.

All post-primary schools provide a guidance and counselling service for their students and they receive ex-quota hours from my Department for this provision. The service includes the provision of individual guidance and counselling for students at times of personal crisis. My Department funds the provision of ongoing professional support through a counselling supervision service, providing advice and sharing practice on issues of concern. This is supplemented by the work of the National Centre for Guidance in Education and by funding provided to the Institute of Guidance Counsellors for professional development. The National Office for Suicide Prevention is also working with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors to support their members' work in this area.

Pastoral care teams in schools provide important assistance in promoting students' well-being and in ensuring that potential difficulties can be identified early. Class year tutors, guidance counsellors, home-school liaison co-ordinators and the services of the National Educational Psychological Service or NEPS, can play an important role in this respect.

NEPS provides consultation for guidance counsellors and other school staff, enabling them to put interventions in place for individuals with clearly identified and serious difficulties. When counselling of a protracted nature is required it is referred to an outside agency. Schools are advised to identify, with the assistance of NEPS, appropriate referral pathways in consultation with the HSE and other mental health services in their local community.

The guidelines issues by NEPS for schools on responding to critical incidents provide advice to schools in managing traumatic events, including advice on prevention and early intervention strategies for students at risk. In the cases referred to by the Deputy, it is imperative that outside clinical services are involved. NEPS psychologists will be available to consult with guidance counsellors if requested.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for responding to this matter. I tabled this question to find out what is happening in this regard. We all accept that there is a crisis and the House has spent some days recently discussing suicide prevention. One difficulty, however, is that schools may take different approaches to such cases. I am not saying that one approach will fit all, but this growing crisis must be dealt with. In one school that I am aware of, a number of children have died. The second child died on the anniversary of the first child's death. In that school, a child that needs counselling slips a note under the door of the principal. The difficulty, however, is that the child is then taken out of the classroom, so everyone knows why he or she is being taken out. That is the method in that school but there does not seem to be a pattern because other schools may adopt different approaches.

There is a recognition that there is a crisis facing many schools, but how should we approach it? The Minister referred to interventions and I understand that special needs assistants have a role with regard to children who may be at risk of self-harm. The worry is that if we cut back services in schools that have experienced these incidents, the problem will get worse.

It is about how we approach this problem, which is getting worse. There are additional problems in certain sectors, particularly the Traveller community. How will the Department examine the problem and approach it? I do not suggest there is one solution but we need to examine this again and come up with a new approach to this growing problem.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his question and his intervention and I share his concern. There have been a number of incidents in recent times, perhaps compounded by economic difficulties in broader society, which are bringing some of these crises to a head.

If schools in the Deputy's constituency are struggling with these matters, I urge him to communicate directly with them and get them to make sure that their teachers with responsibility for pastoral care avail of the many supports in place. If he has a specific query that he would like me to refer to confidentially, I will be happy to do so.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I am aware of schools that have a problem in this regard. My worry is that I do not know who is taking an overview of what is happening in the schools. Is the Department monitoring this and looking at particular schools where a problem has arisen? Is it examining the response to this problem? Are officials monitoring this growing phenomenon in schools?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I do not have that information to hand but I will send a measured reply to the Deputy.