Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 422: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary and secondary schools offering the Stay Safe programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37616/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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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. Approximately, 80%-85% of primary schools are teaching the programme to their students. The issue of child protection and ensuring that all children in every primary and post-primary school are aware of child protection issues are high priority areas for the 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: 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.

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 which is part of the primary curriculum taught in every school. The introduction of SPHE as a 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 the Department to ensure 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, the Department will continue to support the promotion of child protection within the context of the social, personal and health education curriculum.

At post-primary level, social, personal and health education is a required subject in the junior certificate programme since September 2003. SPHE is provided in ten modules, including one on personal safety. Learning outcomes for students include to be able to recognise situations in which personal safety might be threatened; to have a greater awareness of safety-enhancing behaviours and to have a knowledge of help agencies and how to contact them. In addition, skills associated with staying safe are addressed in other modules such as communication skills, relationships and sexuality, influences and decisions.

Schools are assisted in the implementation of SPHE by the SPHE support service which was established in 2000. A comprehensive in-service programme for teachers of SPHE is offered and approximately 1,400 teachers attend every year. In addition, extensive school-based support is offered. Schools are provided with multiple copies of the SPHE curriculum and teacher guidelines, together with an SPHE handbook advising on good practice and classroom resources.

As further support to post-primary schools in the area of child safety and protection, the implementation of the Department's child protection guidelines was facilitated by the regional development officers of the SPHE support service and the relationships and sexuality co-ordinator. The SPHE support service of the Department with assistance from the Health Service Executive designed a one day in-service for designated liaison persons and deputy DLPs in post-primary schools to brief DLPs on the guidelines and their role. A total of 38 one day in-service workshops were offered during the 2004-05 school year in collaboration with the education and support centres.

To accommodate the schools that did not participate, 18 further workshops were organised through the education centre network in the autumn of 2005. These schools were invited to one of the planned autumn workshops and the invitation was supported by a circular from the Department in September 2005. Approximately 90% of post-primary schools have availed of the in-service programme. It is estimated that about 70, 10%, schools may not have availed of it. It is the intention of the Department to write to these schools when they have been identified with the assistance of the education centres.

In addition, the Department funded an additional resource of telephone line support through the respective school management bodies. The Department, with assistance from the HSE, also facilitated the development of an A to Z resource pack of materials for staff briefings in child protection issues. As a follow-up, the Department has issued a circular to schools advising them of a second day of in-service in 2006 and planning, in conjunction with the HSE, has started. The Department has also sent additional copies of the child protection guidelines to schools to ensure each school has a copy for all school personnel.