Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 604: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if a programme equivalent to Stay Safe is widely available in post-primary schools; the measures she has taken to ensure that children, teachers and school authorities at post-primary level are empowered to counteract attempts at child sexual abuse; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32059/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

A national curriculum in social, personal and health education, SPHE, incorporating relationships and sexuality education, has been developed at junior cycle level and been made mandatory for all schools with effect from September 2003. All schools are required to have an agreed school policy and a suitable relationships and sexuality education programme in place for senior cycle pupils. Comprehensive guidelines for junior cycle and senior cycle have also been published and provided to schools by the NCCA to support the RSE aspects of the curriculum. An integrated SPHE programme at senior cycle incorporating RSE is being developed.

The SPHE modules at junior cycle in post-primary schools deal specifically with belonging and integrating, handling conflict constructively, dealing with peer pressure, influences on decision making, relationships and sexuality in terms of values, reproductive system, tackling myths about sex and pregnancy, personal safety, substance use and the impact of teenage pregnancy. Child protection guidelines that were distributed to post-primary schools in November 2004 were produced in consultation with the partners in education to meet the needs for schools to have in place clear procedures which teachers and other school staff should follow where they suspect or are alerted to possible child abuse. The guidelines reflect the particular circumstances of the post-primary school setting and provide management authorities and staff with guidance in relation to recognising the signs and symptoms of child abuse and with procedures for dealing immediately with such concerns.

A central facet of the guidelines is the requirement for each board of management to designate a senior member of staff as the designated liaison person for the school. This person will act as a liaison for the school in all dealings with the Health Service Executive, An Garda Síochána and other parties, in connection with allegations of and/or concerns about child abuse and as a resource person to staff who may have child protection concerns.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 605: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the action she has taken to ensure that the Stay Safe programme or an equivalent is provided in all primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32060/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The issue of child protection and ensuring that all children in every primary school are aware of child protection issues are high priority areas for my Department. The Stay Safe programme is a personal safety programme for children. It is designed to give children the knowledge and necessary skills to help them deal with potentially abusive or threatening situations. However, it is also recognised that the programme must cover those individuals closely involved with children on a daily basis, namely, parents, guardians and teachers. To this end, professional in-service courses for teachers and parent awareness seminars have been put in place at individual school level. This is in addition to the teaching of a personal safety skills programme to pupils.

The training of teachers, parents and boards of management in the Stay Safe programme and the development of guidelines and procedures for a school policy on child protection is provided by a network of 31 regionally based teachers who are available to the programme on a part-time basis. This support supplements the assistance provided by the Department of Health and Children, which maintains an administrative office for the Stay Safe Programme. An initial one day in-service training seminar on the Stay Safe programme has been provided for all primary schools. Since the programme was introduced, 99.7% of primary schools have participated in this training. At present, approximately, 80% to 85% of primary schools are teaching the programme to their students.

Although it should be noted that the Stay Safe programme is not mandatory, the teaching of the overall issue of child protection is now an integral element of the subject of social, personal and health education, SPHE, which is part of the primary curriculum taught in every school. The introduction of SPHE as subject on the revised primary school curriculum combined with the implementation of the national child protection guidelines Children First gave an additional impetus to the Stay Safe programme. It is a priority of my Department to ensure that a high level of awareness and necessary skills to address child protection issues, which includes the implementation of the Stay Safe programme, is maintained in all schools. For this reason, my Department will continue to support the promotion of child protection within the context of the SPHE curriculum.