Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, I thank Senator Garvey and her colleagues for tabling the motion. Together with our colleagues in the Department of Health and the HSE, who have responsibility for mental health services, the Department of Education plays an important role in supporting the well-being of our young people. It is important. Another important point, as a number of colleagues have said, is that the primary responsibility for mental health lies with the Department of Health and the HSE. Guidance counsellors in schools and teachers have a role, as does everyone. However, serious issues that become medical issues are referred to the health service, which is where the focus must be for those cases. It gives me great pleasure to speak about guidance counsellors because I was education spokesperson for my party in the last Dáil and my leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, treated this as his number one issue as he was committed to the concept of guidance counsellors and the availability of guidance counsellors. He was horrified, as Senator Garvey kindly shared, by the abolition of the ex-quota allocation of guidance hours in 2012.

Under the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Department of Education is committed to supporting the emotional well-being of our children, because we know that this is key to helping them to be happy in their lives and to reach their full potential. Well-being is at the heart of everything we do. Today's motion, which the Government is not opposing, references children and young people’s experience of mental health difficulties. This has also come through in our Department’s research and engagement. For example, the chief inspector's report for 2022 acknowledges that school leaders and guidance counsellors are reporting increasingly high levels of anxiety among post-primary students. Similarly, the consultation earlier this year on the draft strategic framework for lifelong guidance identified that stakeholders perceive a significantper capitaincrease in mental health issues being experienced in schools on a daily basis. For this reason, my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Foley, has advanced a range of measures designed to support the well-being and mental health of young people within the school context. The well-being policy statement and framework for practice, published by the Department, sets out the ambition and vision that promotion of well-being will be at the core of the ethos of every school. The Minister and I acknowledge that schools in Ireland are doing much to enhance children's and young peoples’ knowledge and skills in relation to well-being. A number of support structures, initiatives and programmes are currently operating in the post-primary system, including the key support, that is, the guidance counsellor.

Guidance is one of the most important functions in the school environment and it is a priority for the Minister and the Department. Guidance counselling in post-primary schools is holistic and is a key part of the school guidance programme. It is offered on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process and at moments of personal crisis. The objective of counselling is the empowerment of students so that they can make good decisions and manage the challenges of their lives in school and beyond. Guidance counsellors meet students on a daily basis and provide support in relation to a broad range of personal and social issues. Guidance counsellors are trained to respond appropriately to situations along a broad continuum. While a guidance counsellor plays a pivotal role in supporting students, they work within a continuum of support model and are part of a whole-school approach to supporting well-being in schools. In post-primary schools a student support team is the overarching team concerned with the progressing of actions for the welfare and well-being of all students. Through implementing a continuum of support, the student support team provides for the educational, social, emotional, behavioural and learning needs of all, some and a few students to ensure their ongoing well-being. As referred to earlier, guidance counsellors have a pivotal role as part of the student support team and may work with students on a range of normal developmental issues that some children find difficult to manage.

On the allocation of guidance counsellors, 928 guidance counsellor posts are now allocated across the post-primary system for the academic year 2023-24. This achieves full restoration of the allocation of guidance counsellor posts. It is important to point out that we have achieved full restoration. The posts are allocated separately and transparently and outside of the quota on the schedule of posts. That is something I fought hard for in opposition. Our party successfully negotiated for it to be included in the programme for Government and the Minister, Deputy Foley, has now implemented it. This makes it easier for schools and those working on guidance to see how many hours are allocated for this purpose. The annual circular on staffing arrangements states clearly that these hours must be deployed to guidance activities including guidance counselling. It is clearly articulated in the circular that the autonomy rests with school management to run the school and deploy the guidance allocation appropriately in order to meet the guidance needs of students. This includes support for mental health and well-being. The circular, which I understand was negotiated by the Department, the institute and other relevant people, states:

It is recommended that the time provided for student appointments should represent a sufficient proportion of the overall allocation of Guidance hours required for the one-to-one guidance counselling necessary to meet the needs of students under the Continuum of Support model.

At one point, I addressed the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, IGC, conference when the Minister in the last Government was not invited because we were the ones pushing guidance. I am satisfied with what I see the Minister has now done on guidance counselling allocation. Guidance counselling was established when Donogh O'Malley and Patrick Hillery were Ministers for Education, but on a number of occasions throughout history it has been more or less abolished or reduced. It is not surprising that guidance was bad in the 1980s because a certain Government and its Minister came into office in the early 1980s and basically abolished it, after it had been established. Then, as Senator Garvey stated, when 2012 came, the ex-quota allocation system was abolished. We fought hard after that and it is now basically back in place.

Guidance is a whole-school activity where each school forms a team to design and develop collaboratively a whole-school guidance plan as a means of supporting the needs of all students. Guidance permeates every aspect of school life and a whole-school guidance plan is developed in collaboration with teachers, students, parents and the wider school community. The whole school guidance allocation model allows for a balanced approach to guidance in schools. In addition to the support from the whole-school guidance and student support teams, the Minister for Education has orchestrated a wide range of additional programmes and initiatives to support schools and students, some of which I will refer to now. The Minister recently announced a pilot programme for the 2023-24 school year to provide significant counselling and mental health supports to children in primary school. This is welcome. It is a significant support for schools. It is brand new. It is revolutionary and a step forward in education. People will look back at this as a significant move. There are two strands to the pilot, the first of which involves the provision of counselling support to students who are most in need of this support. The second will see the establishment of new well-being clusters working with mental health teams to build schools' capacity in the area of mental health and well-being. This pilot will complement ongoing work and resources to support mental health and services being provided in schools.

The National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, has developed training for school staff on the promotion of well-being and resilience in schools which includes upskilling school staff on the use and implementation of therapeutically-informed approaches in schools. These include trauma-informed approaches, approaches based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy and attachment-aware approaches. The friends programmes are evidence-based programmes. In advance of a systematic roll-out of the programme NEPS conducted a randomised control trial. Teachers trained in the programme by NEPS delivered the programme universally to more than 700 primary school pupils in 2013-14. Significant improvements in coping skills, school connectedness and self-concept along with a significant reduction in anxiety were found for pupils whose teachers delivered the programme.The research demonstrated the programme’s effectiveness in both promoting resilience and wellbeing while also reducing anxiety. For children and young people in particular, wellbeing is significantly shaped by the overall culture and atmosphere.

For example, specifically in the area of bullying, we have redoubled our efforts to tackle and prevent bullying in schools. The Department published Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying in December 2022. The plan provides a collective vision and clear roadmap for how the whole education community and society can work together to prevent and address bullying in schools. Cineáltas is a practical, inclusive document that contains 61 actions, which will help us all to work together towards a diverse, inclusive Irish society free from bullying in all its forms where individual difference is valued and celebrated. It is rooted in four key principles: prevention, support, oversight and community. We look forward to working with all stakeholders in the implementation of this plan.

The Department of Education works closely with the Department of Health and the HSE to explore ways to improve supports for young people, including around increased awareness, promoting help-seeking behaviour and signposting to the wide range of services available. Departmental officials are working with other Departments, including those in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, on guidance-related activities, such as transitions between post-primary and further and higher education. Consultation and collaboration are key for the evolution of guidance policy. Departmental officials collaborated with the IGC and school management bodies to strengthen and clarify content and wording relating to guidance provision in the most recent circular on staffing. Officials will continue to collaborate with stakeholders on guidance policy.

As noted, guidance counsellors are pivotal in their work - the Department and I really mean this - in schools as part of a whole-school guidance approach and in student support. We are undertaking a range of measures to bolster and support their work. A guidance unit was established under the Minister in the Department of Education in 2022 and is progressing a number of actions to strengthen guidance in post-primary schools. It is hoped that establishing the guidance unit will mean that no future government will be able to abolish or remove ex-quota hours. For example, an information note is currently under draft to support schools with strengthening junior cycle guidance through wellbeing. Further guidance is being drafted as regards social and personal guidance counselling.

A national consultation on a draft strategic framework for lifelong guidance was conducted by the guidance unit in the Department in January and February 2023. A report summarising the key messages arising through this consultation will be published in the coming weeks. The strategic framework for lifelong guidance will be published later this year. It will set out the vision, principles and objectives to achieve lifelong guidance, which will help inform, inter alia, strategic direction relating to guidance provision in schools. It is not addressed in my script so much, but the concept of lifelong guidance is incredibly interesting. As Minister of State, I have to be honest and say that I was not previously aware, and Senator Ruane was on the relevant committee, of the area of adult guidance available through our further education institutions in local areas, and our education and training boards, which is a fantastic resource for people if they find it available to them.

In the context of their work in developing the framework, the Minister asked officials to further consider the allocation model for guidance in post-primary schools, with a view to strengthening guidance in schools as appropriate. She also established a dedicated team as part of the Department’s support services in September 2022. This team’s role is to support and strengthen guidance provision in schools. Much has been achieved already in on-the-ground support, resource provision, face-to-face continuous professional development and webinars. A detailed programme has been planned for the academic year 2023-24 to include supporting guidance concepts at primary level.

The Department funds the guidance counselling supervision scheme to support the work of guidance counsellors. Supervision is an arrangement for guidance counsellors to discuss their work with their peers, facilitated by a qualified supervisor. The goal is to provide space and time for guidance counsellors to reflect on their work in a supported way, and to ensure efficacy of the guidance counsellor-student relationship, which is very important. I certainly had no complaints of overreach in my time, as some Senators referenced. That time is very important for students. During the supervision, guidance counsellors can raise any issue relating to their work in post-primary schools and often focus on the personal and social support they are providing to students. The Department is looking at the potential to increase supervision sessions from five sessions a year to six beginning next year.

The Government and Minister do not oppose the motion. She accepts that mental health issues are increasing among young people. She knows this, as we all do. The Minister believes that the guidance counsellor has an important role to play as part of the support structures available in schools. Significant counselling and mental health supports are being provided to students, as I outlined. Notwithstanding this, as part of its work in developing the strategic framework on lifelong guidance, she has asked her officials to give further consideration to the effectiveness of the guidance allocation model so there is further scope to improve it. The wellbeing of our children is paramount. There is no doubt a Minister and Government are in place that are very supportive of the work guidance counsellors do in our schools. I very much welcome the fact that the motion is supported by all sides of the House.