Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the 2014 ESRI school leavers study that provided conclusive evidence of the importance of guidance counselling to students from lower socio-economic groups; if she is further aware that schools in that bracket cannot provide sufficient guidance counselling services within their current teaching allocation; and her plans to rectify this matter. [22312/15]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Is the Minister aware of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, school leavers study that provided conclusive evidence of the importance of guidance counselling to students from lower socio-economic groups? Is she further aware that schools in that group cannot provide sufficient guidance counselling services within their current teaching allocation? What are her plans to rectify this?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am aware of the study referred to by the Deputy. In any discussion about guidance, it is important to note that guidance is a whole school responsibility and does not just involve the guidance counsellor. All teachers and school leaders have a role in the pastoral care of their students, including providing them with regular and ongoing guidance.

All schools are required to provide guidance provision, notwithstanding the budget measure in 2012 which means that it must be managed within a school's standard staffing allocation. This budget measure was introduced as an alternative to a 0.6 adjustment to the standard staffing schedule.

My Department helped shelter the impact for DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations. That was a very important protection for the cohort of our schools most in need of support. I have repeatedly argued that improvements to the staffing and funding of our schools must be a priority as the economic recovery takes hold. In the last budget, I secured the first increase in education spending over recent years, and I fully intend to continue arguing for increased investment in education in advance of the forthcoming budget.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The changes to the general allocation model for guidance counsellors, making them ex-quota, has entrenched inequality in schools. All of the research indicates that. If one looks at schools within the free education system and those within the fee paying system, there is a clear difference in the amount of guidance counselling being provided. Obviously that is due to the fact that those in the private system are being subsidised by parents.

With regard to DEIS schools, in a later question we will discuss the recent evaluation report on DEIS, but even that report states that the ex-quota allocation for guidance will have serious implications for young people in DEIS schools. Many DEIS schools have previously been in receipt of additional guidance resources through the guidance enhancement initiative but its abolition is likely to lead to even greater difficulties in combining the education, guidance and personal counselling elements of the guidance counsellor, leading to reduced resources. It is quite clear that the proposal introduced in that budget is having a detrimental effect on schools for pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Those students are facing real challenges so this must be reversed.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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When the measure was introduced, specific measures were implemented for DEIS schools to protect them, to some extent, from the changes relating to guidance. The idea was that they would get the extra resources to ensure that they protected guidance in their schools. As the Deputy said, we are reviewing DEIS and that is one area we can examine in the review to see what the schools have done to protect guidance.

Also, it should be noted that in the new junior cycle agreement, which has not yet been balloted but which we hope will receive a positive vote in the autumn, there is a new subject called "well-being" which will be studied by all pupils. It will be compulsory. The parameters of that subject are about students having self-esteem and ensuring that students are able to protect themselves from psychological difficulties and so forth. I believe that will contribute to one of the areas that guidance counsellors deal with, which is individual student's concerns. The other area obviously relates to career guidance.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister talked about the additional supports that were put in place on the back of the cuts announced in the budget. A response to a parliamentary question I tabled stated that there is a range of supports available to promote and support the well-being of students. It stated that National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, psychologists are available to offer their advice and support to schools in establishing and developing school support teams. The problem with that, however, is that the service does not have the personnel or resources to implement the guidelines. Well-being guidelines for post-primary and, more recently, for primary schools have been produced by the Department, in conjunction with the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive, HSE. According to the Department, the guidelines are informed by consultation with key education and health partners and by the findings of current research. However, we do not have a full allocation of NEPS psychologists because some of them are out on maternity leave or sick leave. The Department suggests the use of NEPS psychologists to promote well-being within the schools as one of the supports being put in place, but at the same time schools are complaining that they cannot get access to NEPS psychologists to do the job they are employed to do, which is to assess students with special educational needs. There is a contradiction in what the Minister and the Department are saying, and that must be addressed.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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First, NEPS was extended to all mainstream schools in September 2013. The Deputy's point appears to be that there might be issues with the recruitment of staff, but I will revert to the Deputy on that if there are specific issues in that regard. We are also working on reforming the support system for children with special needs, but that will not be introduced this September except on a pilot basis.

To refer to the original point about resourcing, I have indicated that I will examine the options available in the budget when we get whatever budget we are allocated. Obviously, we will fight for the best budget we can get for education. Certainly, guidance is one of the issues that has been raised with me when I have travelled around the country to meet various stakeholder bodies in education and, indeed, the guidance counsellors are well able to make their case as well. The issue is not closed. It is one that, along with a number of other areas, will be examined in the context of available resources at budget time.